Stages of Breast Cancer

After the symptoms and diagnosis of cancer it is important to determine what exactly is the stage of cancer. By knowing the exact stage and the extent of cancer spread the doctor can start with the treatment. The stage of any cancer will depend on the magnitude and the area to which it has spread to the parts of the body. Total staging is feasible only after the surgery or after the tests. In some cases it becomes essential to remove the lymph nodes that develop near the cancer.

In most of the high risk cases a CT scan, chest X-ray along with blood test and nuclear medicine imaging is done. These are done to check for any metastasis or any other secondary from of cancer, which could have spread along with the primary tumor.

The next step is with assigning of TNM code (Tumour, Nodes and Metastasis) in order to determine the treatment. This is done by oncologists. Apart from this the estrogen receptor and the HER2-neuoncogene, is also checked as they can also be possible in affecting the treatment.

Here are described the stages in breast cancer:-
Stage 0 – the cancer cells are in “in situ” or in place as they are located in the breast tissue.

Stage I – in this stage the tumor is less than 2 cm in size in diameter. It is not spread beyond the breast.

Stage IIA- in this the tumor is spread to 2-5 cm without spreading to the armpit also known as the axillary lymph nodes.

Stage IIB- here the tumor is greater than 5 cm is not spread to the axillary lymph nodes. The 2-5 cm one is spread to the axillary lymph nodes.

Stage IIIA- tumor smaller than 5cm size spread to the axillary lymph nodes now gets attached to other structures. While the tumor bigger than 5cm gets spread thoroughly with the auxillary lymph nodes.

Stage IIIB- here the tumor now gets penetrated to the outer breast or it gets spread to the lymph nodes inside the breast or chest in the length of the sternum.

Stage IV- the tumor is of any size and gets spread to other parts like the liver, lungs, bone etc.