Table 1: details of the TNM staging system |
|
T categories for breast cancer |
|
TX: |
Primary tumor cannot be assessed. |
T0: |
No evidence of primary tumor. |
T1: |
Tumor is 2 cm or less across. |
T2: |
Tumor is more than 2 cm but not more than 5 cm across. |
T3: |
Tumor is more than 5 cm across. |
T4: |
Tumor of any size growing into the chest wall or skin. This includes inflammatory breast cancer. |
N categories for breast cancer |
|
NX: |
Nearby lymph nodes cannot be assessed (for example, if they were removed previously). |
N0: |
Cancer has not spread to nearby lymph nodes. |
N1: |
Metastases to movable ipsilateral axillary lymph node(s) |
N2: |
Metastases in ipsilateral axillary lymph nodes that are clinically fixed or matted; or in clinically detected ipsilateral internal mammary nodes in the absence of clinically evident axillary lymph node metastases |
N3:
|
Metastases in ipsilateral infraclavicular lymph node(s) with or without axillary lymph node involvement; or in clinically detected ipsilateral internal mammary lymph node(s) with clinically evident axillary lymph node metastases; or metastases in ipsilateral supraclavicular lymph node(s) with or without axillary or internal mammary lymph node involvement |
M categories for breast cancer |
|
M0: |
No clinical or radiographic evidence of distant metastases |
M1: |
Distant detectable metastases as determined by classic clinical and radiographic means and/or histologically proven larger than 0.2 mm |