Mesothelioma Stages

Staging is a method of evaluating the progress of cancer in a patient. Using this information, doctors will establish a patient’s treatment plan and will try to define a patient’s prognosis. Staging for mesothelioma looks at the extent of the cancer’s development and its possible spread to other parts of the body. Since pleural mesothelioma occurs most frequently and has been studied the most, it is the only mesothelioma for which a staging classification exists.

Several medical approaches are utilized to determine the patient’s stage of mesothelioma, including x-rays, CT scans, and MRI scans. These imaging technologies provide insight into the advancement, extent, and spread of the cancer. However, mesothelioma’s nature as a diffuse disorder means these technologies are often limited in their ability to fully identify the scope of the cancer.

There are three recognized clinical staging systems for evaluating the spread and extent of pleural mesothelioma:

• TNM Staging system
  In TNM staging, information about the tumor, lymph nodes, and metastasis is combined in a process called stage grouping to assign a stage described by Roman numerals from I to IV.
  
  
• The Butchart System
  The staging system historically used for mesothelioma is the Butchart system. This system is based on the extent of the primary tumor mass, and, like the other systems, divides mesothelioma into stages I through IV. Many doctors will still use this system, even though TNM has surpassed it in for accuracy.
  
  
• The Brigham System
  The Brigham System is the latest system and stages mesothelioma according to resectability (the ability to surgically remove) and lymph node involvement.

The Butchart System was the original staging method for mesothelioma, but the International Mesothelioma Interest Group’s (IMIG) TNM system has supplanted it among major cancer centers as a more accurate method for evaluating mesothelioma. The Brigham System is one of the latest methods for the staging of mesothelioma and is comparable to IMIG’s system.