Staging Of Breast Cancer. Your scans and tests give some information about the stage of your cancer. Often the stages 1 to 4 are written as the roman numerals i ii iii and iv.
The stages of breast cancer are indicated using roman numerals ranging from 0 to iv with 0 indicating cancer that is noninvasive or contained within the milk ducts. The most common staging system for breast cancer is the tnm system. The most recent ajcc system effective january 2018 has both clinical and pathologic staging systems for breast cancer.
Generally the higher the stage number the more the cancer has spread.
The staging system most often used for breast cancer is the american joint committee on cancer ajcc tnm system. To see all the possible characteristics of each stage you can review the ajcc breast cancer staging guidelines pdf online. Staging systems are specific for each type of cancer e g breast cancer and lung cancer but some cancers do not have a staging system. The pathologic stage also called the surgical stage is determined by examining tissue removed during an.
