Every cancer has a staging system. This simply means categorizing the
cancer according to how far along it has advanced. The stage determines the
treatment options and the prognosis (survival probabilities) of the
patient. The lower the stage, the better the outlook.
Stage 0
At this stage, cancerous cells are found only in the shallow top layer of
the oral or oropharyngeal tissue and have not spread.
Stage I
At this stage, the tumor is 2cm or smaller and has not spread.
Stage II
The tumor is between 2cm and 4cm but has not spread.
Stage III
The tumor is either larger than 4cm, or it is any size and has spread to a
lymph node on the same side of the head or neck as the primary tumor.
Stage IVA
A tumor of any size that has invaded adjacent structures, may or may not
have moved to a lymph node on the same side of the head or neck, or it has
spread to lymph nodes on both sides of the neck and those lymph nodes are
smaller than 6cm.
Stage IVB
The tumor is any size and has spread to lymph nodes larger than 6cm but has
not metastasized to distant sites.
Stage IVC
The tumor is any size, may or may not have spread to lymph nodes, but has
spread out to other sites.
The following statistics or the relative 5-year survival rates come
from the American Cancer Society and apply to lip, oral, and oropharynx
cancers.