Stages of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is broken down into various stages, and some stages even has sub-stages. The early stages of breast cancer are stage 0, stage 1, stage 2 A/C, and stage 3 A. The more advanced stages of breast cancer are stage B/C and stage 4. Below I will break down each stage. The stages involve categorization based on the size of the tumor and invasiveness of the tumor.

Stage 0:

This stage is characterized by abnormal cells being present in the ducts or lobules of the breast. Although this stage is not truly cancerous, it does increase the chances of developing breast cancer as the abnormal cells increase your risk.

Stage 1:

This stage is when you have a tumor of 2 centimeters or less. Furthermore, this tumor invades the surrounding tissues, but does not invade the lymph nodes.

Stage 2A/2B:

This stage is similar to stage 1 in that the lymph nodes may not be affected, however, the tumor may invade the lymph nodes in this stage. This stage is also different than stage 1 because here the tumor has increased in size. The tumor is 2 to less than 5 centimeters. However, in stage 2B the tumor may be larger than 2 to 5 centimeters but may not invade the lymph nodes.

Stage 3A:

In this stage the tumor has grown and is 5 centimeters or larger. Additionally, the tumor has invaded the auxiliary lymph nodes, which are the lymph nodes in the underarm area.

Stage 3B/3C:

In this stage the tumor is any size and has invaded the surrounding area. Therefore, it is local advanced and is characterized by infected skin, breast or chest tissue, or lymph nodes near the collarbone area.

Stage 4:

This stage is the most severe stage of breast cancer, as it has spread from the breast to other parts of the body. This stage is known as metastatic. Usually, the tumor will metastasize to the lungs because the metastasis of breast cancer is determined by blood flow pattern and the first capillary the tumor will encounter will be the lung.

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Information and image obtained from the following source(s):

Lecture Presentation by Dr. Amy Saldana

https://healamed.com/disease/breast-cancer/14-diagnosis/23-breast-cancer-stages.html

https://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/diagnosis/staging#stage3

https://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/breast-cancer-stage-0-and-stage-1