Stages of Stomach Cancer - OmniMedicalSearch.com

Conditions & Diseases: Cancer

Stomach Cancer

Stages

An important prognostic predictor for any type of cancer is the clinicopathologic stage. The most common staging system used for cancer is the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM system. According to this system, the survival predictors in patients with gastric cancer are: (1) the level of cancer invasion through the stomach wall and (2) the number of lymph nodes affected.

The TNM system refers to: (T) the tumor features -size and invasion level; (N) the involved lymph nodes (lymph nodes are part of the body immune system); and (M) the cancer metastasis - the metastasis stage is the last developmental cancer stage where the cancer spreads to distal organs (organs situated far from the origin point). Also, each of these dimensions have their own staging system.

T Stage for Gastric Cancer

Tis (Carcinoma in situ): According to this stage, cancerous cells are confined to the mucosa tissue (the inner layer of the stomach) without affecting other layers of the stomach.

T1: In this stage, the tumor has invaded the submucosa (the inner layer of the stomach located beneath mucosa).

T2: In this stage, the tumor has invaded the muscle layer of the stomach or the tissues beneath the serosa (the outer layer of the stomach - the stomach protective membrane).

T3: In this stage, the tumor has perforated the stomach's protective membrane without spreading to adjacent organs.

T4: In this stage, the tumor has perforated the serosa and has spread to adjacent organs or other anatomic structures (like major blood vessels).

N Stage of Gastric Cancer

N0: The cancer has not invaded the lymph node near the stomach.

N1: The cancer invaded 1 to 6 lymph nodes.

N2: The cancer invaded 7 to 16 lymph nodes.

N3: The cancer invaded more then 16 lymph nodes.

M Stage for Gastric Cancer

M0: There are no distal metastasis (far distance organs from the origin point are not affected).

M1: The cancer has spread to distal organs.

Usually, when cancer is staged, all these three dimension stages are grouped.

Article by Alina Morrow, MS
Medical Writer
OmniMedicalSearch.com

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Page Last Modified:
10/18/2010