Breast cancer stages

The reason that breast cancer is put into staging systems is so that you can best understand your prognosis, so that you and your doctor can decide on the specific course of treatment, and finally the extent of your breast cancer can be fully understood and, therefore, what type of treatment is needed.

The specific stages of breast cancer are based on certain factors and these include:

  1. The size of the tumor
  2. Is the cancer invasive or non-invasive?
  3. Are there any lymph nodes involved?
  4. Has the cancer managed to spread beyond the breast?

Stage 0 – this stage is typically used to describe non-invasive breast cancers. During this stage there will be no evidence of cancerous cells or non-cancerous cells beyond the region of the breast within which they started.

Stage I – this is where invasive breast cancer has begun to break through and has started to invade neighboring body tissues. During this stage the tumor will typically measure up to 2 cm and there will be no lymph nodes involved.

Stage II – the specific stage is separated into two subcategories:

  • Stage IIA is a form of invasive breast cancer were no tumor can actually be found in the breast, but there are specific cancer cells found in the axillary lymph nodes. The axillary lymph nodes can best be described as the lymph nodes found under the arm.
  • Stage IIB is a form of invasive breast cancer were the tumor is typically larger than 2 cm, but no larger than 5 cm and has managed to spread to the axillary lymph nodes. The other form of stage IIB is where by the tumor will be larger than 5 cm, but has yet to spread to the axillary lymph nodes.

Stage III is separated into three subcategories:

  • Stage IIIA is a form of invasive breast cancer where either no tumor was found in the breast and cancer is typically found in the exterior lymph nodes, or it may even be sticking to other structures. This may also mean that the tumour is 5 cm or smaller and has managed to spread to the axillary lymph nodes. Once again the cancer cells may be found sticking to other structures. Or the tumor is larger than 5 cm and has managed to spread to the axillary lymph nodes or is sticking to other structures.
  • Stage IIIB is yet another form of invasive breast cancer where the tumor may actually be any size and has also spread to the chest wall or even to the skin of the breast. It may also spread to the axillary lymph nodes, or to the lymph nodes located near the breast bone and the cancer cells may also be sticking to other structures. One of the most common forms of this type of breast cancer is inflammatory breast cancer.
  • Stage IIIC is a form of invasive breast cancer where initially there may not actually be a sign of cancer in the breast. If a tumor can be found it could be any particular size and may also have spread to the chest wall or the skin of the breast. This may also mean that the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes that are typically located either above or below the collarbone and the cancer may even have spread to the lymph nodes near the breast bone.

Stage IV – this is a form of invasive breast cancer where the cancer will typically have spread to many other organs of the body. The most common of these will be the brain, bones, liver or lungs.

Within these various stages of breast cancer, your doctor or health care provider may occasionally refer to them as early, earlier, later or advanced stages of breast cancer. The early stages are typically within stage 0, stage I, stage II and occasionally stage III. Whereas, later or advanced stage breast cancer will typically described stage III and stage IV.

You will also find that majority of doctors will use the staging system to try and determine how far your cancer has spread. This is often referred to as the TNM staging system, where T stands for tumor and the size of the tumor, N stands for node and whether the lymph nodes are involved, and M stands for metastasis and whether the cancer has actually metastasized.

Within the TNM staging system you will find additional categories which will measure the size, location and whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Your pathologist will typically work out your T, N and M characteristics by a process that is often referred to as stage grouping. Once these specific characteristics have been calculated, then an overall stage will be assigned for your specific form of breast cancer.

Last updated on Jan 11th, 2011 and filed under Cancer Research. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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