Stages of Cancer

Traditionally, there are four basic stages for any kind of cancer; however, staging cancer depends on the type of cancer as well as your doctor’s use of alternate staging systems.

Stage 1 (or Stage I) typically means that the tumor (i.e., cancer) is fairly small and has not progressed out of the organ it started in.

Stage 2 (or Stage II) means that the tumor is still contained within the organ it started in; however, it is larger and has probably spread to nearby lymph nodes.

Stage 3 (or Stage III) means that the tumor is still contained (some doctors use the word “localized”) within the organ it started in, but just like Stage 2, it is larger and has spread to lymph nodes that are close to the organ. The difference between Stage 2 and Stage 3? That depends on the specific type of cancer you’re talking about – each type of cancer has a different definition that pushes a diagnosis from Stage 2 to Stage 3.

Stage 4 (or Stage IV) means that the cancer has spread from the organ it started in to another organ or organs. For example, if the cancer started in the liver and has moved to a person’s bones, the cancer will be diagnosed as Stage 4.

It is also important to point out that the prognosis for each stage of cancer differs depending on what type of cancer it is. For example, Stage 3 in terms of lung cancer is not the same as Stage 3 in terms of cervical cancer.

Some cancers have a 5th stage known as Stage 0. Stage 0 means that there are cancerous cells in the organ, but they have not started spreading and growing into deeper tissues of the organ. At Stage 0, a cancer is not considered to be invasive.

Beyond the traditional four stages of cancer, there are hundreds of different staging practices that are specific to each type of cancer. For example, a cancer may be staged as Stage 1A or 1B (and also 1A1, 1A2, 1B1 and 1B2), Stage 2A or 2B, and so on. Again, see this link for information related to specific cancers and how they are individually staged.

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