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Breast Cancer

Understanding the Stages of Breast Cancer

Summary & Participants

Breast cancer stages tell us the characteristics of the cancer and if it has spread beyond the breast tissue. Doctors can use this information to guide treatment decisions. Learn how staging is vital in determining next steps.

Medically Reviewed On: July 06, 2008

Webcast Transcript

MARISA WEISS, MD: And then there is metastatic breast cancer. That's stage IV breast cancer in which cancer has spread beyond the breast and immediately adjacent lymph nodes. Her chance of living 5 years can range. It can be around 25 to 40 percent for someone who has metastatic breast cancer.

ANNOUNCER: Determining the different stage of breast cancer helps the tailor the treatment approach.

LAWRENCE WICKERHAM, MD: The classification by stage is an important factor in prognosis, how the patient is going to do over the long-term and can be a factor in choices of therapy

MARISA WEISS, MD: For a woman who has early stage breast cancer there are two categories of treatment. We can treat the whole breast by removal of the whole breast, that's call mastectomy. Or you can treat the whole breast by removal of the lump and radiation to the remainder of the breast tissue.

In terms of the systemic therapy, there are hormonal therapies where estrogen is either reduced or its effect is blocked from the cancer cell. There is also chemotherapy.

ANNOUNCER: Treatment for later stage breast cancer usually focuses less on surgery and more on other types of treatments.

MARISA WEISS, MD: If the cancer is hormone receptor positive, it involves hormonal therapies. If it's not, or if the cancer is aggressive, chemotherapy is usually initiated either one agent, one chemotherapy, at a time or sometimes in combination.

And then there are local therapies that are pulled in as needed. So let's say someone has metastatic breast cancer to the back. We may use radiation to help with back pain.

ANNOUNCER: Today, as we discover more about the nature of breast cancer, the chances of each woman being a cancer survivor improve.

MARISA WEISS, MD: For women with breast cancer today, they have so many more treatment options than they ever had before, within each category of surgery, radiation, hormonal therapies, chemotherapies, immune therapies as well as complementary medicine.

I'm optimistic, but I also know that this is a complicated disease that's going to take a long time to figure out.

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