This is necessary so that physicians can determine which treatments work best for which patients, so that less effective treatments can be discarded. A patient's cancer stage is evaluated in a variety of ways. In some cases, surgical exploration is required to fully stage a patient's disease. Staging, while important for most cancers, does not tell the whole story. Other factors such as tumor biology , the patient's overall medical condition, and the skills and resources available to the health care team can all impact on the ultimate outcome.
Differentiation refers to how closely the cancerous cells resemble their cells of origin.
Assessment of tumor type and grade is made by a pathologist . The treatment of cancer is a very complex subject. The following discussion is quite general, and not all parts of it apply to all types of cancer. For that reason, patients are urged to consult OncoLink's Disease-Oriented Menus for more specifics as to how the following might apply to them. Surgery Surgery is often the first step in the treatment of cancer.