What is staging of prostate cancer?

If cancer is found in the prostate, your physician will determine the stage, or extent, of the disease. Staging is an attempt to determine whether the cancer has spread and, if so, what areas of the body are affected. Various blood and imaging tests are used to learn the stage of the disease. Treatment decisions depend on these findings.

There are several different systems used by healthcare professionals to describe stages of cancer. The different systems may use a letter of the alphabet, a Roman numeral, a number, or any combination of these, or others, to designate the appropriate stage of the cancer.

In general, the different systems attempt to classify the stage of the cancer by evaluating:

• the size and location of the tumor.

• whether the cancer cells have moved beyond the tumor, but are still within a specific area or organ of the body.

• whether the cancer cells have spread beyond the specific area or organ of the body to other tissues beyond it.

• whether the cancer cells have spread into the lymph nodes.

• whether the cancer cells have metastasized into another part of the body.

Results from staging and grading the cancer provide information a cancer team can use to define a treatment plan that will be presented to and discussed with the patient and family members.