1. cancer staging cancer is now considered a systemic disease that occurs in one part of the body to the other parts after the transfer, until the patient can not continue to bear the disease. The development of cancer artificially divided into different stages, that is, cancer staging. In general, small in situ tumors are early stage, spread to distant sites, are late.
2.I of: tumor confined to one place, there is no sign of spread. Phase II: The tumor has spread to nearby lymph nodes, but did not spread to other organs or tissues. III: tumor spread to adjacent lymph nodes in addition to, but also spread to nearby organs or tissues. IV: Cancer has spread to distant sites. The period of the earlier treatment is better, the longer the survival time of patients. For each stage of cancer has an internationally recognized standard, which is the international TNM staging.
3. The international TNM staging
T: tumor – the size of primary tumor.
N: node – lymph nodes around the tumor metastasis.
M: metastasis – distant metastasis.
According to the general rule, cancer occurred first in the continued growth of the local organs, when the growth to a certain extent had local lymph node metastasis, and further growth will occur in the transfer of other parts of the body. T – N – M reflect the general rules and cancer development process. Therefore, this stage is widely used as a cancer staging. Cancer for each combination of very detailed TNM staging.