Cancer is a very complex disease and one of the most complicated aspects is its treatment. To make this a little easier, oncologists have created guidelines that determine the level of severity or progression of the disease, called stages of cancer.
The established classification depends on each type of tumor
Meeting establish and alert the size of the cancer, as well as their degree of advancement, which finally determines the conduit below, especially the treatment.
Why is it necessary to determine what level the tumor is at?
Once the cancer is diagnosed, the next step is to determine its stage. Knowing the size and degree of advancement, as well as the extent of nearby organs and tissues as well as others that are distant (metastasis), is what will determine the best treatment, which must be carefully analyzed according to the general scenario of each person . Stages of Cancer
Allows you to have a panorama that includes even life expectancy. This is very hard, but also very important to know what is to come so that you can organize your personal, family and work issues.
During treatment, the internship should be reassessed, as it is possible for a patient to advance to the next even when receiving treatment or, in the best case, going backwards. This allows the doctor to make decisions and make adjustments to treatment. Stages of Cancer
How is the internship determination carried out?
It is necessary to carry out several studies. The most used are blood and imaging tests (radiography, ultrasound, tomography, resonance and gamma GT). These are ordered according to the type of tumor that exists, as each cancer has a particular way of spreading.
An example of this is prostate cancer , which after invading the neighboring structures of the pelvis, such as the bladder, tends to spread to the bones of the spine. Another tumor that spreads to the vertebrae is breast cancer. Some tumors spread mainly to the liver, such as colon cancer. Stages of Cancer
On the other hand, there are several ways to indicate the stage of a tumor. A common way is to enumerate, starting from 0 and reaching the maximum of IV. In this classification , Stage 0 indicates the absence of tumor, while Stage IV shows a tumor disseminated to distant organs. In relation to the stages I to III, the same that the tumor is present, exposing their size and degree of invasion of the tissues that surround it.
Another way to establish the stages is with the TNM system , these letters mean: T: tumor size, N: extension to the ganglia and M: presence of lesions in distant tissues called metastasis. These letters are followed by numbers, the higher the number, the greater the gravity. Stages of Cancer
