When talking about your cancer, your doctor or nurse may describe it as one of these stages: StageДЄbnormal cells are present but have not spread to nearby tissue. But, for many cancers, the TNM combinations are grouped into five less-detailed stages.

The TNM system helps describe cancer in great detail.

M1: Cancer has spread to other parts of the body.

M0: Cancer has not spread to other parts of the body.

The higher the number after the N, the more lymph nodes that contain cancer.

N1, N2, N3: Refers to the number and location of lymph nodes that contain cancer.

N0: There is no cancer in nearby lymph nodes.

NX: Cancer in nearby lymph nodes cannot be measured.

T's may be further divided to provide more detail, such as T3a and T3b. The higher the number after the T, the larger the tumor or the more it has grown into nearby tissues.

T1, T2, T3, T4: Refers to the size and/or extent of the main tumor.

The following explains what the letters and numbers mean: When your cancer is described by the TNM system, there will be numbers after each letter that give more details about the cancer-for example, T1N0MX or T3N1M0. This means that the cancer has spread from the primary tumor to other parts of the body.

The M refers to whether the cancer has metastasized.

The N refers to the the number of nearby lymph nodes that have cancer.

The main tumor is usually called the primary tumor.

The T refers to the size and extent of the main tumor.

Examples of cancers with different staging systems include brain and spinal cord tumors and blood cancers. You are likely to see your cancer described by this staging system in your pathology report, unless you have a cancer for which a different staging system is used. Most hospitals and medical centers use the TNM system as their main method for cancer reporting.

The TNM system is the most widely used cancer staging system. Tumor grade, which refers to how abnormal the cancer cells look and how likely the tumor is to grow and spread.Whether the cancer has spread to a different part of the body.Whether the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes.The cell type (such as, adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma).Most staging systems include information about: Others are specific to a particular type of cancer. Some, such as the TNM staging system, are used for many types of cancer. See the section on Diagnosis to learn more about these tests. To learn the stage of your disease, your doctor may order x-rays, lab tests, and other tests or procedures. So, the stage doesn't change, even though the cancer might. New information about how a cancer has changed over time gets added on to the original stage. Identify clinical trials that may be treatment options for youДЄ cancer is always referred to by the stage it was given at diagnosis, even if it gets worse or spreads.Understand how serious your cancer is and your chances of survival.Knowing the stage of your cancer helps your doctor: Stage refers to the extent of your cancer, such as how large the tumor is, and if it has spread.

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