The most common query of a cancer patient is “at what stage is my cancer?” This query is relevant as well, for the physician, as depending on the stage of cancer an oncologist decide the therapy, management or surgical intervention. This article will describe the staging system for breast cancer. A staging system is a standardized way for the cancer care team to summarize information about how far cancer has spread.
Cancer stage is based on four characteristics: The size of the cancer Whether the cancer is invasive or non-invasive Whether cancer is in the lymph nodes Whether cancer has spread to other parts of the body beyond the breast The most common system used to describe the stages of breast cancer is the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM system. The stage of a breast cancer can be based either on the results of physical exam, biopsy, and imaging tests (called…
