Q. How is breast cancer staged?
Doctor Answer is medically reviewed by SecondMedic medical review team.
Breast cancer staging is a process used to determine the severity of a breast cancer diagnosis. It helps doctors decide what treatments will be most effective for each person's particular cancer.
Staging is based on the size, location and extent of your tumor, and whether it has spread to other parts of your body. Stages range from 0 (precancerous cells) through IV, with higher numbers indicating more advanced cancers.
Stage 0: This stage describes noninvasive cancers that remain within their original location in the milk ducts or lobules without growing into surrounding tissue. It includes both DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) and LCIS (lobular carcinoma in situ).
Stage I: In this early stage, small tumors have developed but remain localized to either the milk ducts or lobules where they started and have not yet caused any lymph node involvement or spread to other parts of the body.
Stage II: In this moderately advanced stage, tumors are slightly larger than those found in Stage I but still remain localized within either milk ducts or lobules only; however, some lymph nodes may now contain malignant cells near them.
Stage III: Tumors at this advanced stage are larger than before and have likely spread further through either milk ducts or lobules as well as some nearby tissues such as fat tissues underarm areas close to lymph nodes; they can also be discovered invading blood vessels at this point too. Malignancy may also exist within several nearby lymph nodes by now but no distant metastasis has been detected yet outside of these local locations which is determined by imaging studies like CT scans for example; even if distant metastasis becomes apparent later on treatment strategies might still follow standard protocol depending upon individual case scenarios which would involve radiation therapy before surgery followed by chemotherapy depending upon initial stages etc..
Stage IV: This final Stage requires that tumors have already spread beyond initial localized areas throughout multiple organs — draining fluid between breast tissue planes — potentially including bones making traditional surgery less likely due to abnormally high risk factors associated with operating on heavily affected organ systems thus warranting alternative hormone therapy / radiation therapy / chemotherapy options for systemic treatment instead..