Staging

Staging is a term that describes the process of working out how big the cancer is and how far it has spread.

There are three areas that we need to look at carefully.

1. Both Breasts

2. Lymph nodes

3. The rest of the body

It is useful to divide to divide this process of cancer progression into four different stages when planning investigations and treatment.

Stage 1 - Localised lump in the breast less than 2cm in size.

Stage 2 - A larger lump (2 - 5cm) sometimes with lymph node involvement

Stage 3 - Locally advanced disease - a large tumour (bigger than 5cm) that may be attached to the skin or chest wall.

Stage 4 - Metastatic disease - cancer that has spread to distant parts of the body

The term Early Breast cancer refers to the first two stages.