If lung cancer has spread into the windpipe (or trachea) then it is said to be as at Stage 3. Whether the lung cancer is at stage 3A or 3B depends on whether it has spread to the lymph nodes as well. If it has spread there then the lung cancer is at Stage 3B. The tumor can be of any size as while other stages of the categorizing of lung cancers use the size of the tumor to determine its level, once it has spread to the windpipe it is automatically given the rating of level three.
The stages of a cancer are used as a shorthand to describe how big it is, whether it has spread into the lymph nodes and whether it has spread elsewhere in the body. Tests and scans are utilized to diagnose the stage of cancer and to determine the corresponding treatment, although in some cases it may not be possible to be completely sure what stage a cancer is at until you have had an operation.
The most common system of categorizing the severity of a lung cancer runs from 1A through to 4 where 1A means the cancer is small and localized and there is no cancer in any lymph nodes and the tumor is small (up to 3 cm) while 4 means that the cancer is in both lungs or as spread to another part of your body, for example, the liver or bones or has caused a fluid collection around your lung or heart that contains cancer cells (a malignant pleural effusion) or pericardial effusion.
There is another staging system used for lung cancer called the TNM staging system. This system includes detailed information about the size of the lung tumor (T), whether there is cancer in the lymph nodes (N) and whether the cancer has spread to anywhere else in the body, metastases (M).
The TNM system again uses a scale of 1 to 4 and rates each aspect separately. So, a very small cancer which hasn’t spread is T1 N0 M0 while a cancer that has tumor between 3 and 7 cm across, where there is cancer in lymph nodes on the opposite side of the chest from the affected lung or in the lymph nodes above either collar bone or in the lymph nodes at the top of the lung and there are lung cancer cells in distant parts of the body, such as the liver or bones would have a rating T2, N3, M1b.
The stages of a cancer are used as a shorthand to describe how big it is, whether it has spread into the lymph nodes and whether it has spread elsewhere in the body. Tests and scans are utilized to diagnose the stage of cancer and to determine the corresponding treatment, although in some cases it may not be possible to be completely sure what stage a cancer is at until you have had an operation.
The most common system of categorizing the severity of a lung cancer runs from 1A through to 4 where 1A means the cancer is small and localized and there is no cancer in any lymph nodes and the tumor is small (up to 3 cm) while 4 means that the cancer is in both lungs or as spread to another part of your body, for example, the liver or bones or has caused a fluid collection around your lung or heart that contains cancer cells (a malignant pleural effusion) or pericardial effusion.
There is another staging system used for lung cancer called the TNM staging system. This system includes detailed information about the size of the lung tumor (T), whether there is cancer in the lymph nodes (N) and whether the cancer has spread to anywhere else in the body, metastases (M).
The TNM system again uses a scale of 1 to 4 and rates each aspect separately. So, a very small cancer which hasn’t spread is T1 N0 M0 while a cancer that has tumor between 3 and 7 cm across, where there is cancer in lymph nodes on the opposite side of the chest from the affected lung or in the lymph nodes above either collar bone or in the lymph nodes at the top of the lung and there are lung cancer cells in distant parts of the body, such as the liver or bones would have a rating T2, N3, M1b.
