Retroperitoneal sarcoma

Stage describes how much cancer there is and how far it has spread. Soft tissue sarcomas range from stages 1 through 4. A lower stage generally means the cancer is more limited. A higher stage means it is more advanced or has spread to other parts of the body.

Healthcare professionals determine the stage using several pieces of information, commonly summarized as TNM plus grade. TNM stands for:

• T: The size of the primary tumor.
• N: Whether the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes.
• M: Whether the cancer has spread to distant parts of the body.

Grade describes what the cancer cells look like under the microscope. The staging system divides sarcomas into grades 1 to 3. Low-grade tumors tend to be slow-growing and slower to spread and often have a better outlook, called prognosis, than higher grade tumors.

Staging isn't the same for every sarcoma. The tumor's location and type matter, and bone sarcomas have their own staging considerations. So a person's sarcoma can't necessarily be assigned a stage from tumor size alone.

Both tumor grade and stage can help your care team determine the most appropriate treatment.