After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, our expert pathologists at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center will determine your stage of cancer. The stage of cancer describes how much and far the cancer has spread in your body. It is one of the most important things to know when deciding how to best treat your cancer, including whether your cancer can be removed (resected) with surgery. You may need additional diagnostic tests to help our team formally assign a stage to your cancer, which is dependent upon the size and spread of the cancer.
The following clinical staging is commonly used for pancreatic cancer. This staging is especially helpful upon immediate diagnosis since we might not know if the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes at that time:
Additionally, below is the AJCC (American Joint Committee on Cancer) TNM staging system (Stages 0–IV), which is also commonly used for pancreatic cancer. A higher number, such as stage IV, means a more advanced cancer.
Also known as pancreatic cancer (or carcinoma) in situ, this stage of cancer is only found in the lining of the pancreas.
Also known as resectable cancer, this stage of cancer is only inside the pancreas.
Also known as borderline resectable cancer, this stage of cancer has grown, but has not spread to organs in other parts of the body.
This stage of cancer could be of any size and has either spread to four or more nearby lymph nodes or into nearby major blood vessels with or without spreading into any nearby lymph nodes. The cancer has not spread to organs in other parts of the body.
Also known as metastatic cancer, this stage of cancer has spread to organs in other parts of the body, farther away from the pancreas, such as the liver, inner lining of the abdomen (the peritoneum), lungs or bones.
Learn more about the stages of pancreatic cancer.
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