Stages of Cancer

Here is a brief summary of what the stages mean:

• Stage 1 usually means a cancer is relatively small and contained within the organ it started in
• Stage 2 usually means the cancer is localised, but the tumour is larger than in stage 1. Sometimes stage 2 means there are nearby lymph nodes that have cancer cells in.
• Stage 3 usually means the cancer is larger and there are cancer cells in the lymph nodes in the area
• Stage 4 means the cancer has spread from where it started to another body organ, such as the liver, bones or lungs