Obviously, cervical cancer is a form of cancer that takes place within the cervix of a woman. It is one of the most common forms of cancer, and can be fatal when left to grow and thrive without the correct treatment. One important thing for people to learn if they are diagnosed with cervical cancer, or know someone who has this disease, is how is cervical cancer staged?

For those who aren’t familiar with the process of understanding and diagnosing cancer, the process of finding out exactly how dangerous it might be and how far it has spread throughout the body is known as staging. This process works by taking information that has been gathered by previous diagnostic tests and exams throughout the years, and comparing them against the tests that are done on the individual with cancer to determine the size of the tumor, and how deeply it has invaded tissues around and in the cervix. In some cases, this testing might also indicate that the cancerous cells that have been created in the cervix have already spread to distant organs or surrounding lymph nodes.

The Process of Staging

Understanding how is cervical cancer staged is important because it is a key factor in selecting the ideal form of treatment for someone suffering with cervical cancer. The level of a cancer doesn’t generally evolve with time, even if the cancer itself continues to progress. A cancer that persists or eventually returns will still be referred to by medical experts by the stage that was given to it when the disease was first diagnosed. Only information that is about the current extent of the cancer will be added. People will keep their same diagnosis stage, but additional information will be added to outline the current status of the disease.

A staging system is potentially the best way for members of a cancer care team to better summarize and understand the extent of cancer in a particular patient. In the question “How is cervical cancer staged?” the answer generally relies on two systems that are used for staging most types of cervical cancer. These systems are known as the FIGO (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) system and the AJCC (American Joint Committee on Cancer) system. Both forms of staging are quite similar.

Classifying the Cancer

The AJCC system for staging classifies cervical cancer according to three distinct factors: the extent of the tumor, whether it has spread, and whether it has spread to distant sites. In the same way, the FIGO system uses the same information. Both systems classify the disease of cervical cancer in stages that are from stage 0 up to stage 4. Staging is generally based on clinical rather than surgical findings. In other words, this means that the extent of the disease will be evaluated by the doctor’s physical evaluation and a few other tests that are done in certain cases such as proctoscopy. They will not be based on findings made during imaging tests or surgery.