What Does Staging Mean and What is it Used For?

Dr. Barbara Smith answers the question: 'What is staging used for?'

By
Barbara Smith, M.D., Ph.D. Director, Breast Program, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
May 22, 2008, 12:00 PM ET
1 min read

— -- Question: What does staging mean and what is it used for?

Answer: As part of treating a woman's breast cancer, we not only think about the breast we also think about the rest of the body. Staging is a way to look to see if there's been any evidence of spread of tumor cells to any other part of the body. If there is tumor in other locations treating those become the first priority and surgery will become secondary. In general for breast cancer we look at the lungs, the liver and the bones as places where breast cancer may spread and generally we will do blood tests and X-Ray studies ahead of time to double-check that nothing is going on in any of these areas.

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