[4] Staging of Cancer

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Staging of Cancer

Mary Linton Peters, Richard S. Pieters, James Liebmann & Geoffrey Graeber

This chapter is part of: Pieters RS, Liebmann J, eds. Cancer Concepts: A Guidebook for the Non-Oncologist. Worcester, MA: UMass Chan Medical School; 2015-. doi: 10.7191/cancer_concepts

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Description
The “stage” of a cancer is a short-hand way of describing the extent of cancer in a patient. Stage is based on macroscopic involvement of tissues by cancer. Staging of cancer occurs prior to the beginning of treatment, or at the first definitive surgery. Clinical staging, which includes radiography and exam findings, takes place initially. Pathologic staging, which is obtained from surgical specimens, can be acquired during the course of surgical treatment. Patients then carry either the clinical stage or the pathologic stage for the duration of their illness. This chapter in Cancer Concepts: A Guidebook for the Non-Oncologist will describe principles of cancer staging.

Description

The “stage” of a cancer is a short-hand way of describing the extent of cancer in a patient. Stage is based on macroscopic involvement of tissues by cancer. Staging of cancer occurs prior to the beginning of treatment, or at the first definitive surgery. Clinical staging, which includes radiography and exam findings, takes place initially. Pathologic staging, which is obtained from surgical specimens, can be acquired during the course of surgical treatment. Patients then carry either the clinical stage or the pathologic stage for the duration of their illness. This chapter in Cancer Concepts: A Guidebook for the Non-Oncologist will describe principles of cancer staging.

Details

Published	Published By
March 25, 2019	UMass Chan Medical School
License Information
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Citation
Mary Linton Peters et al. 2013. Staging of Cancer. In Pieters RS, Liebmann J, eds. Cancer Concepts: A Guidebook for the Non-Oncologist. Worcester, MA: UMass Chan Medical School; 2015-. doi: 10.7191/cancer_concepts

Publisher Notes
Staging of Cancer has the following notes:
- This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No. HHSN276201100010C with the University of Massachusetts, Worcester.