Once your health care team knows you have breast cancer, they will do more tests to stage it. Staging is a tool the team uses to find out how advanced the cancer is. The stage of the cancer depends on the size and location of a tumor, whether it has spread, and how far the cancer has spread.
Your health care team uses staging to help:
There are two types of staging for breast cancer.
Clinical staging is based on tests done before surgery. These may include:
Pathological staging uses the results from lab tests done on breast tissue and lymph nodes removed during surgery. This type of staging will help determine additional treatment and help predict what to expect after treatment ends.
Stages of breast cancer are defined by a system called TNM:
Doctors use seven main stages to describe breast cancer.
The type of cancer you have, along with the stage, will help determine your treatment. With stage I, II, or III breast cancer, the main goal is to cure the cancer by treating it and keeping it from coming back. With stage IV, the goal is to improve symptoms and prolong life. In almost all cases, stage IV breast cancer cannot be cured.
Cancer can come back after treatment ends. If it does, it can occur in the breast, in distant parts of the body, or in both places. If it does return, it may need to be restaged.
Korourian S, Klimberg VS. Clinical prognosis and staging of breast cancer. In: Klimberg VS, Gradishar WJ, Bland KI, Korourian S, White J, Copeland EM, eds. Bland and Copeland's The Breast. 6th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2024:chap 26.
National Cancer Institute website. Breast cancer treatment (adult) (PDQ) - health professional version. www.cancer.gov/types/breast/hp/breast-treatment-pdq. Updated January 19, 2024. Accessed April 4, 2024.
BACK TO TOPReview Date: 12/31/2023
Reviewed By: Todd Gersten, MD, Hematology/Oncology, Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute, Wellington, FL. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.
Health Content Provider
06/01/2025
|
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, for Health Content Provider (www.urac.org). URAC's accreditation program is an independent audit to verify that A.D.A.M. follows rigorous standards of quality and accountability. A.D.A.M. is among the first to achieve this important distinction for online health information and services. Learn more about A.D.A.M.'s editorial policy, editorial process and privacy policy. A.D.A.M. is also a founding member of Hi-Ethics. This site complied with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information from 1995 to 2022, after which HON (Health On the Net, a not-for-profit organization that promoted transparent and reliable health information online) was discontinued. |
The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. © 1997- 2024 A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.