Approach to Cancer Care
Approach to Cancer care
Nursing 410v
Grand Canyon University
October 5, 2011
Staging is the process of finding out how much cancer there is in the body and where it is located. It is how the doctor learns the stage of a person's cancer. Doctors use this information to plan treatment and to help predict a person's outlook (prognosis). Cancers with the same stage tend to have similar outlooks and are often treated the same way. The cancer stage is also a way for doctors to describe the extent of the cancer when they talk with each other about a person’s case.
Doctors need to know the amount of cancer and where it is in the body to be able to choose the best possible treatment. For example, the treatment for early stage breast cancer may be surgery and radiation, while a more advanced stage of breast cancer may need to be treated with chemotherapy, too. Doctors also use the stage to help predict the course a cancer is likely to take.
For most cancers, the stage is based on 3 main factors, T, N, and M:
· T: is based on the size of the original (primary) tumor and whether or not it has grown into nearby tissues
· N: whether or not the cancer has spread to the nearby lymph nodes
· M: whether or not the cancer has spread to distant areas of the body
Not all cancers are staged this way. Often this is because they grow and spread in a different way than most tumors. For example, leukemias (cancers of the blood) affect the blood and bone marrow throughout the body, and so are not staged based on these factors. Cancers in or around the brain are also not staged using the TNM system, since these cancers tend to spread to other parts of the brain and not to lymph nodes or other parts of the body.
Doctors gather different types of information about a cancer to figure out its stage. Depending on where the cancer is located, the physical exam may give some clue as to the extent of the cancer. Imaging tests like x-rays, CT scans, MRIs, ultrasound, and PET scans
Nursing 410v
Grand Canyon University
October 5, 2011
Staging is the process of finding out how much cancer there is in the body and where it is located. It is how the doctor learns the stage of a person's cancer. Doctors use this information to plan treatment and to help predict a person's outlook (prognosis). Cancers with the same stage tend to have similar outlooks and are often treated the same way. The cancer stage is also a way for doctors to describe the extent of the cancer when they talk with each other about a person’s case.
Doctors need to know the amount of cancer and where it is in the body to be able to choose the best possible treatment. For example, the treatment for early stage breast cancer may be surgery and radiation, while a more advanced stage of breast cancer may need to be treated with chemotherapy, too. Doctors also use the stage to help predict the course a cancer is likely to take.
For most cancers, the stage is based on 3 main factors, T, N, and M:
· T: is based on the size of the original (primary) tumor and whether or not it has grown into nearby tissues
· N: whether or not the cancer has spread to the nearby lymph nodes
· M: whether or not the cancer has spread to distant areas of the body
Not all cancers are staged this way. Often this is because they grow and spread in a different way than most tumors. For example, leukemias (cancers of the blood) affect the blood and bone marrow throughout the body, and so are not staged based on these factors. Cancers in or around the brain are also not staged using the TNM system, since these cancers tend to spread to other parts of the brain and not to lymph nodes or other parts of the body.
Doctors gather different types of information about a cancer to figure out its stage. Depending on where the cancer is located, the physical exam may give some clue as to the extent of the cancer. Imaging tests like x-rays, CT scans, MRIs, ultrasound, and PET scans