Hi, I am really confused on this stage business.I have read all of the paperwork they give you from the hospital etc., but since I've found this forum and have been reading the reply's I am CONFUSED! I had tissue from the floor of my mouth and my jaw bone(about an inch or more) removed plus lymp node taken from neck. Stage 4, I was told because it had gotten into bone,it also grew large after it was exposed. I have been reading about stages here of people who have had more removed and are stage 2and 3,people with stage 4 who have multiple sites.Stage 3 and 4 people who are doing well and cancer free and people with 1&2 who have repeat cancers? Is it where it is. how big ,or how it has spread?Maybe no one can answer this but if you can please try. gnelson

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.

This staging system is described right on our site. Go to the cancer facts page (http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/facts.htm) and scan down to the blue link that says stages of cancer. Everything that defines the different stages is there, using either system. Please note the comment that stages are a way of giving doctors a definite (not subjective) way of describing your cancer when talking about it with each other, when determining treatment plans, and recording outcomes. While it is true that higher stages have poorer outcomes in the long run, that is not any kind of hard and fast rule. So don't get freaked out by stages. There are those of us out here that have had "late stage" cancers and are still around to talk about it. The reasons that this cancer reoccurs has nothing to do with staging. People who have had late stage cancers do not have reoccurences more than those with early stage cancers.

Hi, Thanks guys both are great areas of information. I think I understand better why I was put where I was. Anyone with a question try both places. This web site says all cases are different and will proceed differently. I liked that. A group of my Doctors told me once that when I first came in my case was different, and as we went along it has continued to be different, not always to the good I might add. "Life is like a box of chocolates,you never know what you are going to get". Thanks, gnelson