Delve into the sequential phases of cancer development, from its initial formation to advanced stages, to gain insight into its progression and treatment possibilities.
When a cancer is relatively small and contained within the organ it started in.
When the cancer indicates a larger tumor than in stage 1, with potential spread to nearby lymph nodes.
When the cancer is larger & may have started to spread into surrounding tissues & there are cancer cells in the lymph nodes in the area.
When the cancer has spread from where it started to another body organ. This is also called secondary or metastatic cancer.
Staging is a way of describing the size of a tumour and how far it has grown. When doctors first diagnose a cancer, they carry out tests to investigate the extent of the cancer locally and to see whether it has spread to another part of the body from where it started.
Explore the details regarding staging below in these points:
Staging is crucial in cancer treatment as it determines the extent of disease spread, guiding treatment plans and predicting outcomes. Accurate staging helps tailor therapies to individual patients, improving prognosis and survival rates.
Depending on the stage, cancer may be localized or advanced. Localized cancer is confined to one area and may be treated with local therapies like surgery. Advanced cancer has spread beyond its original site, requiring systemic treatments such as chemotherapy or hormone therapy.
Lymph nodes play a vital role in the immune system by filtering out harmful substances and trapping viruses, bacteria, and cancer cells. They are also essential in staging cancers, as the presence of cancer cells in lymph nodes often indicates the spread of the disease.
Adjuvant therapy is additional treatment given after the primary treatment to lower the risk of cancer returning. It may include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, or targeted therapy to eliminate any remaining cancer cells.
Staging systems are worked out for most types of cancer. The systems are mentioned below:
‘TNM’ stands for Tumour, Node, Metastasis. This system can describe the size of a primary tumour, whether there are lymph nodes with cancer cells in them and whether the cancer has spread to a different part of the body. The system uses numbers to describe the cancer.
Sometimes the letters A, B or C are used to further divide the number categories:-
Example, stage 3C cervical cancer. P can be used before the letters TNM to mean a tumor that has been removed by surgery.
These usually have a scale of 1 to 4 (or sometimes A to D).
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