TABLE OF CONTENTS The next step after cancer detection is ascertaining the type, rate of growth, and stage of the cancer.
A biopsy sample, when subjected to microscopic examination, provides a fair indication whether the tissue sample under examination is benign or malignant. Irregular shape of cells and disorderly alignment indicate signs of malignancy. After malignancy is confirmed, you need to ascertain how far the cancer has progressed; this is crucial in deciding the treatment regimen to be followed. This part of analysis is called staging.
| Note | To learn more about malignancy, see Appendix E. |
Various staging systems exist for the diagnosis of cancer. Some staging systems cover several types of cancer whereas some are cancer specific. However, all staging systems take into consideration certain common factors such as location and size of primary tumor, number of tumors, extent of invasion into lymph nodes grade of tumor, and existence of secondary tumors. The extent to which cells of tumor resemble normal cells decides the grade of tumor.
| Note | Tumor staging is always done with reference to primary tumor; size of secondary tumors is not taken into consideration. |
Staging systems keep evolving as better understanding of cancers is developed.
Numeral system adopts a four-stage method; each stage is denoted by a Roman numeral, as below:
Stage I: Cancer is small, localized, and curable.
Stage II & Stage III: Cancers are advanced but localized, may or may not have invaded lymph nodes in the vicinity. Possibility of cure decreases with the enhancing...
