Breast Cancer Stage VS Grade: These two things detected in the test can confuse you, know what is the difference between them

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in India. According to statistics, every fourth minute a woman in the country dies of breast cancer and every eighth minute a woman dies from it. In such a situation, it is very important to understand the important aspects related to the investigation of this deadly disease.

There are two things we discover in breast cancer screening. First- stage of cancer and second- grade of cancer. People often get confused in these two words. To understand the difference, we spoke to Dr. Manish Dattatray Karekar, Chief Operating Officer, Pathology Lab Operations, Krishna Diagnostics.

Question: What is breast cancer grade?
answer: Cancer grade measures how abnormal cancer cells are compared to healthy cells. Cancer cells that look like healthy cells under a microscope have a low cancer grade. On the other hand, cancer cells that look very different from healthy cells, their cancer grade is high.

Question: Which grade of cancer is dangerous?
answer: Grade 1 is called a low grade number. This means that the cancer is growing slowly and the chances of it spreading are very low. Grade 2 is called intermediate grade number. This means that the cancer is growing faster than grade 1 and slower than grade 3. Grade 3 is called the higher grade number. This means the cancer is growing rapidly and the chances of it spreading are high.

Question: What is the cancer stage?
answer: The stage of the cancer tells how big the main tumor is and how much it has spread in the body. Most doctors use the TNM system to find out the cancer stage.

Tumor (T): It shows how big the main tumor is in the breast.

Node (N): It tells whether the tumor has spread to the lymph nodes, if it has spread, where and how much.

(Lymph nodes are part of our immune system. Their job is to ‘sample’ the fluids circulating around the body to detect changes such as infection, injury or cancer.)

Metastasis (M): This shows whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body.

Question: Which stage of cancer is dangerous?
answer:

Question: What is the difference between breast cancer grade and stage?
answer: In simple language, while grade refers to the appearance of cancer cells, stage gives an idea of ​​how big the main tumor is in the breast and how many parts of the body the cancer has spread to.

(NOTE: This article is for general information only. Start cancer screening/treatment on doctor’s advice.)