Vaginal Cancer Stages
Staging is a standard way of categorizing cancers that is used to determine prognosis and treatment. The staging for vaginal cancer is as follows:
- Stage I: The cancer has grown through the top layer of cells but it has not grown out of the vagina and into nearby structures. It has not spread to nearby lymph nodes or to distant sites.
- Stage II: The cancer has spread to the connective tissues next to the vagina but has not spread to the wall of the pelvis or to other organs nearby . It has not spread to nearby lymph nodes or to distant sites.
- Stage III: Either the cancer has spread to the wall of the pelvis and may—or may not—have spread to nearby lymph nodes, or the cancer is in the vagina and it may have grown into the connective tissue nearby and it has spread to lymph nodes nearby. It has not spread to distant sites.
- Stage IV: Stage IV has two stages: Stage IVA and Stage IVB. At Stage IVA the cancer has grown out of the vagina to organs nearby (such as the bladder or rectum). It may or may not have spread to lymph nodes but it has not spread to distant sites. At Stage IVB the cancer has spread to distant organs such as the lungs.
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