there is really no way of knowing. the stage of a cancer cannot be determine by feeling it. i am so sorry to hear about your father.
if the cancer tumor is felt by hand in lower abdomen what stage of cancer is it. my father's colon cancer in a third world country was not noticed until he could feel the bump of the tumor by hand. doctors surgically removed the tumor but did not test it in lab. they thought it was appendecitus. a year later he felt the growth of cancer and this was the time that the doctors first knew it was colon cancer. how advanced has it been during the first surgury and how much could it have spread?