Bone Cancer Stages
Bone cancer stage plays an important role in determining the treatment method of bone cancer. Staging the bone cancer will provide the information about the cancer affected area and its growth. Hence, the treatment is generally decided as per the bon cancer stage. Bone cancer stages can be decided mostly by two ways: TNM system and 1-3 stage. Doctors grade the cancer cells by examining how they look under the microscope. If the cancer cells look more abnormal, it is considered that these cells are fast growing and highly aggressive.
Staging System of Bone Cancer
The bone cancer is grouped or staged from the following factors:
- The spread of the cancer cells or the affected area of tumor
- The low or high grade of the bone cancer cells
- Whether the cells have spread to other parts of the body
The stages or groups of the cancer cells are generally based on the treatment methods that need to be followed for the particular types of cancer cells.
Three Stages of Bone Cancer
The number stages of bone cancer are divided into three main stages and sub categories within these stages. These stages are as following:
- Stage I
Bone cancer of this stage is at the low grade of its development. The cancerous cells are limited to a specific small area and not reached to the other parts of the body or bones. Patients with bone cancer of this stage just need to go through the surgery to remove the cancer tumor. This stage is divided into two categories:
Stage I A stands for the bone cancer cells that are at low grade and are confined into the bone itself. These cancer cells may causes swelling in bones or pressure on the bone wall, but they are not grown outside of the bone wall. This stage of cancer is also known as the intracompartmental bone cancer.
Stage I B bone cancer suggests the cancer cells that are of low grade, but they have grown outside the bone wall. This stage is known as the extracompartmental bone cancer, which is developed outside the specific small compartment (area) in which it was limited in Stage IA.
- Stage II
Bone cancer in Stage II stands for the high grade cancer cells, but these cells have not reached to the other parts of the bone or other organs of the body. As these cells are fast growing and aggressive doctors prefer to perform chemotherapy with combination of the surgical therapy to remove the cancer cells.
Stage II A stage bone cancer has the aggressive cancer cells, but they are limited into the bone wall.
Stage II B stage is similar to the Stage IB, but this stage has the fast growing cells outside the bone wall. The cancer cells do not spread to any other pats of the body.
- Stage III
The bone cancer in this stage has grown outside the bone wall. Generally, the bone cancer cells spread to the other parts of the body like the lungs and its surrounding areas. This is the final stage of the cancer which makes the doctor to recommend the most effective treatment for the removal of cancer cells from the body.
