In the moment when a woman gets diagnosed having breast cancer, in order to perform breast cancer staging there are tests done. The main point of the tests is to see how far the cancer cells have spread in the body to find out about the severity of the condition.
Stage 0 as a part of staging of breast cancer
This kind of cancer is known as carcinoma in situ and there are two main types.
Ductal carcinoma in situ
This is considered to be a noninvasive issue as part of which there are abnormal cells located in the lining of the duct of the breast. In situ means that the cancer cells did not yet spread to the surrounding tissues.
When thinking about staging of breast cancer you should know that this type could turn out to be invasive. At this moment the specialists cannot predict whether the lesions will turn out to be invasive or not.
Lobular carcinoma in situ
In this case the cancer cells can be located in the lobules. Only in rare case does this condition become invasive. Nonetheless in this breast cancer staging if the lesions become invasive there are great chances for the cancer cells to appear in the other breast as well.
Stage one
This is known as the staging of breast cancer during which we can truly talk about developed cancer. This stage is made of two substages. In case of stage IA the cancer is of about 2 cm and it is located in the breast only.
In case of stage IB there could be no tumor or only small clusters that are located in the lymph nodes. In the other case of this breast cancer staging there is a tumor that is smaller than 2 cm and there are also some small clusters in the lymph nodes.
Stage II
Again in this stage there are two substages. In stage IIA there is no tumor in the breast, and the cancer cells are located in the lymph nodes of the arm. It is also possible for the tumor to be of 2 cm and to be present around the lymph nodes of the arm.
In the third case of this staging of breast cancer the tumor has a size of between 2 and 5 cm and it didn’t affect yet the lymph nodes of the arm.
When patients get to stage IIB the tumor is larger than 2 cm but smaller than 5 cm and it can be already found in the axillary lymph nodes. In another case of this staging of breast cancer the cancer cells are bigger than 5 cm but they didn’t contaminate the lymph nodes of the arm yet.
Stage IIIA
During this breast cancer staging, the cancer cells aren’t found in the breast. The cancer is located in the lymph nodes of the arm or the cancers are located in the lymph nodes close to the breastbone.
The breast cancer staging is a little more complicated than it may seem at first and only a doctor can do it accurately.
