Stage Groupings for Breast Cancer
These are the AJCC stage groupings for breast cancer. Each TNM category, with its assigned numerical value, falls into one of these stages.
- Stage 0 (early stage): This means that DCIS, LCIS, or Paget’s disease has been found. There is no actual tumor, and there are no signs of disease spreading to lymph nodes or tissue beyond the breast. With LCIS, you are at increased risk for breast cancer, but no cancer is actually present.
- Stage I (early stage): No cancer cells are found in the lymph nodes and the tumor is no more than 2 cm (less than one inch) across.
- Stage II (early stage): Cancer has spread to your underarm lymph nodes and/or the tumor in the breast is 2 to 5 cm (1 to 2 inches) across.
- Stage IIA: These are cancers where there is either no tumor or a tumor is at Stage I size, but cancer cells are in your lymph nodes. These are also cancers between 2 and 5 cm that have no lymph node involvement.
- Stage IIB: Two cm or larger, these cancers show signs of having spread to lymph nodes, but not to your chest wall or skin.
- Stage III (advanced stage): This stage is also called locally advanced cancer. The tumor in your breast is usually large (more than 2 inches across), the cancer in your underarm lymph nodes is extensive, or it has spread to other lymph node areas or to other tissues near the breast.
- Stage IIIA: This stage includes any tumors fitting the description above.
- Stage IIIB: This stage includes those cancers that have spread to your chest wall or skin. You may also have visible symptoms such as an ulcer on your breast skin, swelling, or an “orange peel” appearance to your skin. Inflammatory breast cancer is a type of locally advanced breast cancer in this stage.
- Stage IV: This is cancer that has spread to another organ in your body. It is called metastatic cancer. In this case, the size of the tumor and the extent of the spread to the lymph nodes are less important than the fact that cancer has spread from the breast to other organs of the body.
