By Pure Matters The way a cancer grows is called its
pathophysiology. The grade of your cancer is the terminology
doctors use to describe how the cancer cells look. Knowing how
the cells look will help your doctor predict how fast the cancer
may grow and spread. The stage of your cancer is the terminology
doctors use to communicate the size of a tumor and where and how
deeply it has spread. When the pathologist has examined the
cells, he or she will issue a report that includes the cancer's
grade and stage. To grade your cancer, the pathologist gives
your tumor a number from 1 to 3. Slower-growing tumors get a 1.
Faster-growing tumors get a 3. The stage and grade of a cancer
are unrelated to each other. However, the two categories
combined describe the status of the cancer in such a way that
your doctor can figure out how aggressively it must be treated.
A Grade 3 cancer caught at a very early stage has a better
prognosis than a Grade 1 cancer that isn't discovered until
after it spreads. Ask your doctor to e