Stages of Skin Cancer
The skin cancer stage is determined by the severity of the disease. The doctor investigates the size of the tumor and whether it has spread to lymph nodes and other parts of the body. The staging of skin cancer is divided into two categories.
Non-melanoma group and melanoma group comprise the categories. Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are nonmelanoma cancers.
This is the earliest stage of skin cancer, in which the cells have not migrated beyond the epidermis, the outermost layer of skin.
This stage is characterized by the dissemination of cancer cells to the dermis, but only to a depth of two centimeters or less.
In this stage, the cancer cells are larger than 2 centimeters, but have not yet spread to lymph nodes nearby.
Cancer has begun to disseminate from the primary tumor to other bone and tissues and is larger than 3 centimeters in diameter.
This is the most severe stage of the disease. This indicates that the malignancy has spread to the bones, tissues, and lymph nodes. The size of the lesions exceeds 3 centimeters.
