Stage 2 Breast Cancer

After the breast cancer has been diagnosed it is important for the doctor to take up the process of ‘staging’. This process usually involves conducting certain tests to determine the size of the cancerous tumor, the area affected by the cancer, the spread of the cancerous cells and its potential to metastasize to the other parts of your body.
Knowledge of the stage of breast cancer enables the doctor to make an appropriate decision regarding the treatment measures to be adopted after considering all the above stated aspects.

A breast cancer is staged from Stage 0 to Stage 4 and the severity of the disease goes on increasing with every stage while, the chances of survival tends to decrease with the increase in stage of breast cancer. Stage 0 is when the tumor is very small and is present in only the ducts or the lobes. Stage 1 symbolizes the initial stage of invasive breast cancer. In this the tumor is about 2 centimeters and has not spread beyond the area of the breast or to the lymph nodes. Stage 2 signifies a further progress that the disease has made in your body.
In Stage 2 breast cancer the cancerous cells have begun their invasion into the other parts of the body but first affecting the lymph nodes. This stage is further divided into Stage 2A and Stage 2B depending upon the size of the tumor and whether the tumor has invaded the axillary lymph nodes.
In stage 2A the cancer may have spread to the lymph nodes but would be no more than 2 centimeters in size or it would be about 2 to 5 centimeters in size but has not spread in the lymph nodes. The survival rate for this stage is about 88%.
In stage 2B, the cancer is generally about 2 to 5 centimeters and has spread into the lymph nodes or the tumor itself could be more than 5 centimeters in size but has not spread into the axillary lymph nodes. The survival rate for this stage drops further to about 76%. This is probably attributed to the fact that stage 2B is a little more aggressive and large than stage 2A.
Measures like surgery- comprising of lumpectomy or mastectomy, radiation and /or chemotherapy would be used for treating Stage 2 breast cancer.

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