What are the different stomach cancer stages?
There are five different, different stomach cancer stages. Each phase is defined by how far cancer has spread. The zero phase means that it does not spread at all and remains inside the innermost layer of the stomach wall. On the other hand, the fifth phase means that cancer has spread from the stomach to other areas of the body. The stomach cancer stages are very important to determine because it gives the doctor a reference point to start treatment.
Stage Zero is the first phase of stomach cancer. Patients who are diagnosed with stomach cancer with a stage are lucky to have such an early diagnosis. Cancer at this stage is located in the mucosal layer, which is the inner layer of the stomach lining.
The second phase of stomach cancer is called the first phase and is only a little more advanced than zero. This phase consists of two possible scenarios, depending on how deeply the cancer has moved to the stomach wall and lymph nodes. In the first, cancer is limited to the second layer of the stomach, but moved to the lymph UZLin near the affected area. In the second scenario of this phase, the lymph nodes are not involved, but cancer is in the second and/or third layer of stomach lining.
The stomach cancer criteria contain three options and are more advanced than the previous stomach cancer phases. Cancer at this stage may have penetrated all four layers of the stomach wall, but did not move into the lymph nodes. It is also possible that cancer has moved to closer lymph nodes, but only moved to the muscle or third layer of the stomach wall. The third option is that cancer has spread to the lymph nodes at a certain distance from the tumor, but only proceeded to the second layer of stomach.
In the fourth phase of stomach cancer, called hometime, there are three possible scenarios. The smallest classification of stomach cancer in the third phase is when it has reached lymph nodes far from the tumor and spread to musclesstomach lining layers. When cancer has reached close or distant lymph nodes and has spread to all four stomach layers, it is also considered the third phase. The worse definition of stomach cancer in the third phase is when it is located not only in all layers of the stomach lining, but also in tissues in the area.
The last phase of stomach cancer stages is the fourth phase. This means that stomach cancer has reached metastases. At this stage, cancer can be found in all four layers of the stomach wall and in nearby tissue. Perhaps it has also spread to other areas throughout the body, including various lymph nodes.