Hi, Gnelson.

To find out more about staging (maybe more than you really care to know), do the following:

1. Go to the following National Cancer Institute web page:

http://cancer.gov/cancer_information/cancer_type/

2. Click on "Head and Neck Cancer".

3. Look under "Treatment". You'll see "Lip and Oral Cavity Cancer Treatment", followed by "[patients] [health professionals]." I'd click on "patients", to start with.

If you feel that the "patients" section is too lightweight, go ahead and click on "health professionals". If you do that, you'll see the technical side of staging, namely, the TNM system. Be sure to read the TNM definitions first. It is these combinations which determine the stage. In summary: The "T" stands for "tumor", and refers to the physical size of the primary tumor. The "N" stands for "nodes", and indicates the size and number of nearby lymph nodes that have been affected. The "M" simply indicates whether or not there are distant mestastases (i.e. spread of the cancer to distant locations, like the liver, lungs, etc.)

Once you get through the TNM definitions, just look up the combination to determine the stage. For example, I had a tumor of the tongue that was 2.5 centimeters in its greatest dimension, I have no apparent node involvement and no metastasis. My TNM combination would be T2,N0,M0. Therefore, I am a Stage II.

Hope this helps. I know I've run across more thorough explanations of this subject, but I can't seem to recall the web sites. If I find them, I'll let you know.

Please remember, Gnelson, that only your doctor can determine your staging. Only he or she has your individual vital statistics (tumor size, level of nodal involvement, etc.), so only use the above web site to give you a better feel for what your doctor is doing, and to help you ask more intelligent questions, not to diagnose yourself. Good luck.