Staging of cancer: Important Things to Understand

One of the most important aspects that help us understand the degree and growth of any cancerous growth is the stage of cancer. It is this understanding—staging the cancer—that helps the physician determine the type of treatment the patient has to undergo.

As the case is, staging of cancer is a vital part of the diagnosis of cancer; and it is the diagnosis that helps majority of the patients to begin with the medications and the required treatment.

What is staging:

In simpler words, it is a way of understanding how much the cancer has grown within the body of a patient. One of the simplest ways of getting cancer staged is referred to by the name ‘TNM classification’.

Take a look at the following:

• T denotes Tumor and indicates the local growth of the primary tumor.
• N denotes Nodes and indicates the stretch of cancer to the lymph glands locally, known as nodes.
• M denotes Metastases and indicates the stretch of cancer to various other body parts..

Understanding staging

Upon staging a cancer, it is given a number along with any of the above characters to denote the stage and severity of the same.

In order to understand the same better, let us take an example of stomach cancer and see how it works;

The Tumor;

• A T-1 indicates that the tumor is on the wall of stomach.
• A T-3 indicates that the tumor has grown through the wall of stomach.
• A T-4 indicates that the tumor has invaded the nearby structures like the pancreas.

The Nodes;

• N-0 indicates that the tumor has not spread to the lymph nodes.
• N-1 indicates that the tumor has affected some of the local lymph nodes.
• N-2 indicates that the tumor has spread more extensively to the local lymph nodes.

The Metastasis;

• M-0 indicates that there is no indication of metastases.
• M-1 indicates that there are metastases to some other parts of the body like the brain or liver.

As you have already understood the importance of staging of cancer, it is imperative that you get the staging done with the help of an established and professional medical centre that is equipped with all types of equipment to help in the same. Imaging Lily has been fortified with all the latest and required equipment and machineries to help you diagnose and stage cancerous growth effectively. With the help of professionally experienced personnel, the services are guaranteed to be of exceptional quality with affordable services and maximum support for the clients.