Once you have your test results, knowing what to ask can help you understand exactly what they mean.
Your cancer will have a certain grade. The grade of a cancer depends on what the cells look like under the microscope.
In general, a lower grade indicates a slower-growing cancer and a higher grade indicates a faster-growing one.
- Grade 1: cancer cells resemble normal cells and aren't growing rapidly.
- Grade 2: cancer cells have features between grades 1 and 3. They don't look like normal cells and are growing somewhat faster than normal cells.
- Grade 3: cancer cells look more abnormal and may grow or spread more aggressively.
Cancer stages
The stage of a cancer describes the size of a tumour and how far it has spread from where it started.
Below is an example of staging that the clinic may use:
- Stage 0: the tumour is in situ (where it started) and not spreading.
- Stage 1: the tumour is less than 2cm and is not spreading.
- Stage 2: the tumour is 2cm to 5cm (and may or may not affect the lymph nodes) and is not spreading.
- Stage 3: the tumour is more than 5cm, or any size but fixed either to chest wall, muscle or skin, or has spread to lymph nodes above the collarbone.
- Stage 4: the tumour is any size. It may affect the lymph nodes but has definitely spread to other parts of the body.
Useful questions
If you receive a cancer diagnosis, you'll probably have some questions for your doctor. Jean Slocombe, Cancer Research UK's cancer information nurse, suggests some things you might want to ask:
- What stage your cancer is.
- What sort of treatment you need (cancer can be treated in a variety of different ways).
- Sometimes there's a choice of treatments, so you might want to ask if you have any options and where you can find information about the different treatments. For example, whether there's a specialist nurse you can talk things through with.
- When you can expect to start treatment and what side effects you might experience.
- What the treatment is going to achieve. Is it likely to cure the cancer or will it slow down the growth of the cancer and lessen symptoms?
- Find out if there's someone at the hospital you can contact if you feel unwell, before or after the treatment, or if you need to contact your GP.
- Aside from the cancer diagnosis, there are often practical issues that need to be sorted out, such as financial matters. Ask if there's someone at the hospital who can advise you about things such as benefits.
- Write down questions as they occur to you and take these with you when you go to see your doctor.
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