My cancer was staged as IIIc (T3/N2/M0). Let’s get some perspective and see where that falls in the standard tumors/nodes/metastases (TMN) system of staging:
- T - The degree of invasion of the intestinal wall
- T0 - no evidence of tumor
- Tis- cancer in situ (tumor present, but no invasion)
- T1 - invasion through submucosa into lamina propria (basement membrane invaded)
- T2 - invasion into the muscularis propria (i.e. proper muscle of the bowel wall)
- T3 - invasion through the subserosa
- T4 - invasion of surrounding structures (e.g. bladder) or with tumour cells on the free external surface of the bowel
- N - the degree of lymphatic node involvement
- N0 - no lymph nodes involved
- N1 - one to three nodes involved
- N2 - four or more nodes involved
- M - the degree of metastasis
- M0 - no metastasis
- M1 - metastasis present
AJCC stage groupings
The stage of a cancer is usually quoted as a number I, II, III, IV derived from the TNM value grouped by prognosis; a higher number indicates a more advanced cancer and likely a worse outcome.
- stage 0
- Tis, N0, M0
- Stage I
- T1, N0, M0
- T2, N0, M0
- Stage IIA
- T3, N0, M0
- Stage IIB
- T4, N0, M0
- Stage IIIA
- T1, N1, M0
- T2, N1, M0
- Stage IIIB
- T3, N1, M0
- T4, N1, M0
- Stage IIIC
- Any T, N2, M0
- Stage IV
- Any T, Any N, M1
My tumor was classified T3 but was borderline T4 which would have meant more chance for the cancer to spread throughout my body if it had perforated the colon wall. And my node count was 15 out of 46 nodes removed were malignant, so, much higher than the staging threshold of greater than 4. So as you can see, I was pretty much as close to a stage 4 cancer as you can get which is critically important because any stage below IV is considered curative. If I had stage IV, instead of having chemo for 6 months, I would have chemo for the rest of my life and my surgery may have been much more involved. This is what I am talking about when I say how lucky I am this was found when it was. And of course the higher stage you go, the all important 5-year survival rate goes down. And the numbers are tricky. A lot of the ones you find are old and there have been recent advancements in treatments that have had significant impacts. If I find any new, good numbers I’ll put them up.
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I can’t believe how lucky you were to have caught the cancer before it progressed any further. Its scary it can get so far before you can notice!
Comment by B. Trapp — 2008.08.28 @ 5:25 am