The stage of breast cancer is determined by the cancer’s characteristics.
Non invasive; hasn’t spread to the surrounding tissue of the breast
Stage III breast cancer has a tumor of any size and the cancer has spread to the axillary lymph nodes and some other lymoh nodes and to the chest wall, but not to other parts of the body.
The cancer of any size has spread to 4 to 9 axillary lymph nodes or to internal mammary lymph nodes.
Has spread to 10 or more axillary lymph nodes, the internal mammary lymph nodes, and/or the lymph nodes under the collarbone
The tumor can be any size and has spread to other organs, such as the bones, lungs, brain, liver, distant lymph nodes, or chest wall
Stage | Primary tumour (T)* | Regional lymph node status (L) | Distant metastasis (M) | ||
T- Tumour | 0 | Tis | N0 | M0 | |
T1 | Tumour ≤ 2 cm | I | T1 | N0 | M0 |
T2 | Tumour ≥ 2 cm but ≥ 5 cm | - | T0 | N1 | M0 |
T3 | Tumour ≥ 5 cm | IIA | T1 | N1 | M0 |
T4 | Tumour of any size with direct extension to chest wall or skin | - | T2 | N0 | M0 |
N- Lymph node | IIB | T2 | N1 | M0 | |
N0 | No cancer in regional node | - | T3 | N0 | M0 |
N1 | Regional movable metastasis | III A | T0 | N2 | M0 |
N2 | Non-movable regional metastases | - | T1 | N2 | M0 |
N3 | Cancer in the internal | - | T2 | N2 | M0 |
M- Metastasis | - | T3 | N1/N2 | M0 | |
M0 | No distant metastases | III B | T4 | Any N | M0 |
M0 | No distant metastases | III C | Any T | N3 | M0 |
M1 | Distant metastases | IV | Any T | Any N | M1 |