{"entity":{"id":"cancer-stage","kind":"term","name":"Stage","aka":["stages","staging","stage I","stage II","stage III","stage 1","stage 2","stage 3","early-stage","early stage","late-stage","late stage","locally advanced","localised","localized","regional spread","staged","restaging","upstaged","downstaged","stage IA","stage IB","stage IIB","stage I-III","stage II-III"],"tldr":"How far a cancer has spread, from stage I (small and confined) to stage IV (spread to distant organs). Stage is the single strongest guide to treatment and prognosis.","summary":"Stage combines the size and local extent of the primary tumour, whether lymph nodes are involved, and whether there are distant metastases, formalised in the TNM system and grouped into stages I to IV; stage 0 is cancer in situ. Stages I to III are usually treated with curative intent by surgery or radiotherapy, often with drugs before or after, while stage IV is generally treated with systemic therapy to control rather than cure. Stage is determined by imaging and pathology at diagnosis ('clinical' and 'pathological' stage) and is not changed if the cancer later spreads, though the patient is then said to have metastatic or recurrent disease.","asOf":"2026-09-09","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_staging","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_staging"}],"tags":[],"related":["tnm-staging","metastasis","lymph-node","tumour-grade","in-situ","stage-shift","prognosis","screening"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"category":"Clinic basics"},"route":"/terms/cancer-stage/","neighbours":{"term":[{"id":"early-detection-term","kind":"term","name":"Early detection","route":"/terms/early-detection-term/"},{"id":"tumour-grade","kind":"term","name":"Grade","route":"/terms/tumour-grade/"},{"id":"grade-vs-stage","kind":"term","name":"Grade versus stage","route":"/terms/grade-vs-stage/"},{"id":"grade-stage-receptor-breast","kind":"term","name":"Grade, stage and receptor status: three different things on one breast report","route":"/terms/grade-stage-receptor-breast/"},{"id":"tnm-skin-carcinoma","kind":"term","name":"How skin carcinoma is staged in Britain: UICC TNM, and why it is not the American system","route":"/terms/tnm-skin-carcinoma/"},{"id":"in-situ","kind":"term","name":"In situ","route":"/terms/in-situ/"},{"id":"invasive-cancer","kind":"term","name":"Invasive","route":"/terms/invasive-cancer/"},{"id":"lymph-node","kind":"term","name":"Lymph node","route":"/terms/lymph-node/"},{"id":"metastasis","kind":"term","name":"Metastasis","route":"/terms/metastasis/"},{"id":"nottingham-prognostic-index","kind":"term","name":"Nottingham Prognostic Index (NPI), and PREDICT","route":"/terms/nottingham-prognostic-index/"},{"id":"primary-tumour","kind":"term","name":"Primary tumour","route":"/terms/primary-tumour/"},{"id":"prognosis","kind":"term","name":"Prognosis","route":"/terms/prognosis/"},{"id":"screening","kind":"term","name":"Screening","route":"/terms/screening/"},{"id":"stage-shift","kind":"term","name":"Stage shift","route":"/terms/stage-shift/"},{"id":"bwh-staging-cscc","kind":"term","name":"The Brigham and Women's Hospital staging system, and why squamous cell carcinoma has two","route":"/terms/bwh-staging-cscc/"},{"id":"tnm-staging","kind":"term","name":"TNM staging","route":"/terms/tnm-staging/"},{"id":"tnm-prostate-cancer","kind":"term","name":"TNM staging for prostate cancer, and what changed in the 9th edition","route":"/terms/tnm-prostate-cancer/"},{"id":"breast-tumour-size-on-the-report","kind":"term","name":"Tumour size on a breast report, and why it differs from the scan","route":"/terms/breast-tumour-size-on-the-report/"},{"id":"tnm-breast-cancer-editions","kind":"term","name":"Which staging edition a breast report uses: UICC TNM 8, TNM 9 and the AJCC prognostic stage","route":"/terms/tnm-breast-cancer-editions/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"breast-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Breast cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/breast-cancer/"},{"id":"resectable-nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Resectable stage I to III non-small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/resectable-nsclc/"},{"id":"stage-iii-unresectable-nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Unresectable stage III non-small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/stage-iii-unresectable-nsclc/"}]}}