what differentiates the stages of cancer.
In: Biology
Cancer is uncontrolled cell growth. The cells in our body each has a specific job. If they go rogue and start doing their own thing, that’s what we sometimes identify as Cancer.
There are many different cancer types. Most cancers are assigned a stage upon diagnosis, stage I-IV. Staging is often determined by a TNM classification. T = tumor size, N = lymph Node involvement, M = metastatic disease (if cancer cells escape their origin point and spread to other parts of the body, eg. breast cancer cells spread into the bones). Not all cancers are staged, like leukemia. And others use a different, unique classification, like brain cancers.
The main purpose of staging is to predict prognosis. Generally speaking, earlier stage cancers have a better prognosis/ expected outcome than more advanced stages. More broadly, stage I is better than stage II is better than stage III is better than stage IV.
American Cancer Society website has a lot of great information that I think is really palatable for non-medical people.
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