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About this Condition: Breast Cancer
Stages of Breast Cancer
When your care team determines your diagnosis, they also assess what stage of breast cancer you have. Anatomical staging describes:
T-Tumor size. The size of an invasive breast cancer (in combination with the other features) gives clues to how quickly it might have grown and how likely it is to have spread beyond the breast.
N-Lymph nodes, whether cancer is present in lymph nodes and in how many.
M-Metastasis, whether the cancer has spread and, if so, to where.
A breast cancer diagnosis and its staging help you and your doctor make decisions about your treatment plan. This information is also helpful in determining your prognosis (probable outcome based on the experience of others).
The stages of breast cancer tumors are:
- TX: A primary tumor cannot be assessed.
- T0: No evidence of a primary tumor.
- Tis: Ductal carcinoma in situ.
- T1a, b, c: The tumor is smaller than 2 centimeters across.
- T2: The tumor is between 2 centimeters and 5 centimeters across .
- T3: The tumor is more than 5 centimeters across.
- T4(metastatic): The tumor of any size has grown beyond the breast to the chest wall or skin. Inflammatory breast cancers are stage T4.
- Recurrent: Breast cancer that has come back after treatment.
Learning that you may have cancer plunges you into uncertainty. The more you understand about your condition, the greater your sense of control. This overview explains diagnosis and treatment planning, to help you understand what to expect as you go through the early steps of your care.
Breast Care at Stanford Health Care
Learn more about how breast cancer is diagnosed and the options for treatment.
Learn more about surgical treatment options that preserve the breast.
Learn more about various approaches to mastectomy.
Learn more about breast cancer may be treated with medications like chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and hormone therapy.
Learn more about how lymph nodes are removed and examined to help stage and treat breast cancer.
Learn more about what it is like to receive radiation treatments for breast cancer.
To make an appointment with a breast cancer specialist, call 650-498-6004.
Learn More About Breast Cancer
What We Offer
Our providers use leading edge techniques to diagnose and treat breast cancer.
About this Condition
Learn about the symptoms, risk factors, types, diagnosis, stages and prevention of breast cancer.
Patient Care Resources
Learn what to expect as you go through the early steps of your care.
Clinical Trials
We offer one of the nation’s most robust clinical trial programs for breast cancer. These research studies evaluate new medical approaches, devices, drugs, and other treatments.
As a Stanford Health Care patient, you may be eligible to participate in open clinical trials. Open trials refer to studies currently recruiting participants or that may recruit participants in the near future. Closed trials are not currently enrolling, but similar studies may open in the future.
To learn more about the clinical trials we offer, contact Pei-Jen Chang at 650-725-0866.
Our Clinics
You can access Stanford’s expertise and compassionate care for any stage or type of breast cancer at a location that is convenient for you. We always accept new patients, and we take many insurance plans, including Medicare and Medi-Cal.