Breast Cancer: A Case Study

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There are two different staging systems that are used with breast cancer. The first, more conventional way, is expressed on a number scale of 0 to IV. The characteristics that determine where your breast cancer would fall include the size of the cancer or tumor, if the cancer has spread to the neighboring lymph nodes, whether the cancer is considered invasive or non-invasive and whether the cancer has spread to more parts of the body besides the breast. Correctly putting your cancer into the right stage is vital due to the difference in treatments with the stages. Starting with Stage 0, is for cancers that are non-invasive. “In stage 0, there is no evidence of cancer cells or non-cancerous abnormal cells breaking out of the part of the breast …show more content…

Stage IIB is a cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes or has grown larger than 5 centimeters. Breastcancer.org describes Stage IIB as “the tumor is larger than 2 centimeters but no larger than 5 centimeters; small groups of breast cancer cells – larger than 0.2 millimeter but not larger than 2 millimeters – are found in the lymph nodes” or “the tumor is larger than 2 centimeters but no larger than 5 centimeters: cancer has spread to 1 to 3 axillary lymph nodes or to lymph nodes near the breastbone (found during a sentinel node biopsy)” or “the tumor is larger than 5 centimeters but has not spread to the axillary lymph nodes.” The most complex stage is Stage III. Consisting of 3 stages, consisting of both invasive and inflammatory breast cancer, is the most severe breast cancer that hasn’t spread to other organs within the

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