Colon Cancer Staging

In order to know how best to treat colon cancer, doctors use colon cancer staging as a classification system.

It rates the condition by how far it has developed.

This was traditionally done after exploratory surgery.

Nowadays techniques such as endoscopic ultrasound and other imaging techniques can be used to evaluate the stages of colon cancer.

Doctors also use staging data along with other information for research on the causes and treatment of the disease.

Dukes Colon Cancer Staging System

In the past staging was done using the Dukes System. Some treatment centers still use this scale for rating the stages of colon cancer. The Dukes System uses the 4 letters A through to D to rate the condition.

Tumors, Nodes, and Metastasis (TNM) Colon Cancer System

More recently there has been a switch to using the TNM system, which stands for Tumors, Nodes and Metastasis. Colon cancer staging with the TNM system gives a more accurate description for medical professionals, but may be confusing and misleading for patients and others.

AJCC Roman Numerals Colon Cancer System (I, II, III, and IV)

To avoid confusion and make things simpler, doctors will often quote staging using another scale developed by the American Joint Commission on Cancer (AJCC). This scale uses the Roman Numerals I to IV to rate the stages of Colon Cancer, and roughly corresponds to the A to D scale of the Dukes System.

Suffixes may be added to indicate further information. For example stage III a and stage III b both correspond to the 3rd stage aka C on the Dukes system.

Colon cancer staging may seem complicated at first glance, but the measurement indicates how far the tumor has spread.

AJCC stage I / Dukes System A / TCM scale: T1 N0 M0 or T2 N0 M0

At this stage the cancer has begun to spread out from the mucosa in the center of colon, but is still contained in the intestine wall (T1 or T2). The infected area is very localized.

AJCC stage II / Dukes System B / TCM scale: T3 N0 M0 or T4 N0 M0

This stage indicates the cancer has spread to adjacent organs (T3), but has not yet reached the lymph nodes (N0). A lymph node is a local control center the nervous system uses to regulate the immune system and fight foreign bodies.

Each lymph node controls infections and foreign bodies in a small area of the body. They become inflamed when they are fighting cancer. Detecting inflamed lymph nodes is a common way to tell if the cancer has spread.