A Guide To Cancer Stages

One of the most deadly kinds of disease is Cancer. Just hearing the word gives
goose bumps to the listener. It is thought about as a dreadful kind of disease. Cancer
is generally known scientifically as malignant neoplasm. It is a very serious disease in
which cells in one part of the body start to grow in a way that is not normal. In order
for doctors to establish the cancer stages cancers were ranked depending on the extent
of their growth and spread in the body. The correspondence of the stages depends on
the severity of the growth. Determining cancer stages aids the doctors in making their
recommendations, and could easily communicate the cases with other doctors. There are
two ways in determining cancer stages.

One way is what we call the overall stage grouping or the Roman numeral staging.
These ranks cancer into five progressively stages namely stage 0, I, II, III and IV. Stage
0 cancers are called carcinoma situ. It is a cancer that is just beginning, involving just a
few cells. Stage I cancers are the type which are localized to one part of the body. Stages
II and III are locally advanced cancers. They are categorized depending on the specific
type of cancer. Stage II are cancers indicates that affected lymph nodes are only found
in one portion of the diaphragm. This cancer is less than 2 centimeters. while stage III
cancers indicate that the affected lymph nodes are the upper and lower portions of the
diaphragm. The size of this cancer is more than 4 centimeters. The Stage IV cancers have
often metastasized, or spread to other organs or throughout the body. The lymph node
measures 6 centimeters or more.

Another popular system to know cancer stages is called the TNM system. It is a three
dimensional rating of cancer extensiveness. Doctors rate the cancers they find on each
of the scales. Within the TNM system, a cancer may also be designated as recurrent,
meaning that it has appeared again after being in remission or after all visible tumor
has been eliminated. The meaning TNM is Tumor size for T, Lymph node involvement for
N, and Metastasis for M. Metastasis is the degree to which cancer is spread beyond it’s
location. If the score on the scale are larger, it means that it is a more advanced cancer.

Aside from the two systems, here is another way that could be used to detect the
cancer stages is called summary staging. This summary includes the SITU or what we
call early cancer stage. LOCALIZED is the cancer that has not yet spread, REGIONAL is
the cancer that has already spread to the local lymph nodes. DISTANT is the term used
for spread cancer and UNKNOWN for cancers that doesn’t fit in any category. Lastly,
the Grade System. The definitions of the G categories apply to all head and neck sites
except thyroid. These are: G -Histopathological Grading, GX - Grade of differentiation
cannot be assessed. .G1 - Well differentiated. G2 Moderately differentiated. G3 - Poorly
differentiated. G4 – Undifferentiated.