The reported staging the spread of cancer, determine prognosis, and suggests the best treatment for the lung cancer patient. Although lung cancer is treatable at any stage, only certain stages can be cured.
In general, a lower stage is associated with better prognosis. However, no doctor can predict how a patient will live with lung cancer based only on the stage of disease, because cancer is different in each person and each patient’s response to treatment is different. The classification system is different for lung cancer small cell and non small cell.
1 .- small cell cancer. It is classified as:
• Disease limited: the tumor has not spread beyond one side of the chest. This region can be treated with radiation. It occurs in about 40% of patients.
• Disease spread: the tumor has spread outside the chest cavity. It is approximately 60% of cases. At present the treatment of choice is chemotherapy.
2 .- Non-Small Cell Cancer: It is classified into several stages depending on its scope:
- Stage 0: there is only disease at the microscopic level. Surgery may completely remove the tumor in this stadium.
- Stage I: there is a single lesion in one lung, and no metastasis or spread of disease to the lymph. The treatment is surgery, and may not be necessary chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
* Stage IA – The tumor is smaller than 3 centimeters, not in a main bronchus and has not spread to any lymph.
* Stage IB – the tumor is in the main bronchus, but does not cause obstruction, it is very close to the trachea, and has not spread to any lymph.
- Stage II: There is a single lesion in one lung, but also extends to nearby lymph nodes. The treatment of choice remains surgery, may be associated also chemotherapy before or after surgery
* Stage IIA – The tumor is smaller than 3 centimeters, not in a main bronchus and has spread to lymph nodes on the same side as the tumor.
* Stage IIB – the tumor is in the main bronchus, not very close to the trachea, does not cause obstruction of the entire lung but has spread to lymph nodes on the same side as the tumor.
- Stage III: the tumor has spread to the mediastinum or the pleura, which may affect different organs found in it, or detect a pleural effusion. Few patients can be operated and at this stage, so generally used chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
*Stage IIIA – further spread to lymph in the phase II (the cancer has spread to lymph nodes in Center of the chest, on the same side where it originated), and has not invaded any vital organs.
* Stage IIIB – the tumor has invaded vital adjacent organs and / or has spread to lymph nodes on the opposite side of the chest, neck lymph specific as scalene, or supraclavicular nodes.
- Stage IV: The cancer has metastasized, ie, has spread to other lung or the bone, brain, liver … The usual treatment is chemotherapy, in order to reduce symptoms and improve the patient’s condition.
In general, cancers of non-small cell lung cancer stage IIIB and IV are generally considered inoperable, so it is very important to find out if cancer has spread to lymph in the opposite side of where the tumor. Part of the monitoring to see if there extension or not the tumor (metastasis) consist of CT (scan) or MRI (magnetic resonance) of the liver, brain, bones and adrenal glands,
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