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Information about your cancer type

Cancer is not one single disease. It is a broad group of diseases that can behave very differently depending on where it starts, the type of cells involved, the stage at diagnosis, the tumour’s genetic features, and how it responds to treatment. This page provides a starting point for exploring different cancer types, with links to information on diagnosis, treatment options, recurrence risk, survival factors, side effects, relevant tests, and complementary approaches that may help support recovery and long-term outcomes. The aim is to help you understand your cancer type more clearly, compare the available evidence, and find practical information that is relevant to your own situation.

Cancer Type:
Bladder Cancer
Bone Cancer
Brain & CNS Cancer
Breast Cancer
Cervical Cancer
Childhood Cancer
Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML)
Colorectal (Bowel) Cancer
Esophageal Cancer
Gallbladder Cancer
Head and Neck Cancer
Hodgkin Lymphoma
Kidney Cancer
Leukaemia
Liver Cancer
Lung Cancer
Malignant Mesothelioma
Multiple Myeloma / Plasma Cell Neoplasm
Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Ovarian Cancer
Pancreatic Cancer
Penile Cancer
Prostate Cancer
Skin Cancer
Stomach Cancer
Testicular Cancer
Thyroid Cancer
Uterine Cancer / Endometrial
Vaginal Cancer
Vulvar Cancer

Learn about your cancer

Learning about your cancer helps you make informed choices, take an active role in your care, and lower anxiety. The following covers the essential information you need to know.

1. What is your cancer type?
The organ of origin: Breast, lung, lymphoma, etc.

2. What is your cell type?
The specific tissue category where the mutation began: Carcinoma, Sarcoma, Myeloma, Leukemia, Melanoma, Lymphoma, and Central Nervous System (CNS) Cancers.

3. What is your cancer sub-type?
Defined by cellular appearance, genetic changes, or surface proteins: Tumor suppressor genes – BRCA1, BRCA2, p53, or TP53. These are protective genes, but they can mutate and turn into cancer cells.
Oncogenes. – HER2, RAS. These turn cells cancerous. Mutations in these genes are not inherited.
DNA repair genes – BRCA1, BRCA2, and p53. These fix mistakes made when DNA is copied. Many of them function as tumor suppressor genes.

4. What Stage is your cancer?

Stage describes the anatomical extent of the cancer: how large it is, whether nearby lymph nodes are involved, and whether it has spread to distant organs (metastasised). Each cancer type has its own staging system. Some cancer types have a specific system that is only used for that type of cancer (more below).

Staging isn’t used for blood cancers, brain cancers, or basal cell carcinomas.

The main categories of staging are:

TNM for many solid tumors;
Stages I to IV for many solid tumours;
Lugano for Hodgkin and many non-Hodgkin lymphomas;
FIGO for many gynaecological cancers;
Binet or Rai for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia;
WHO/ISUP grading system for kidney cancer
Gleason/Grade Group alongside TNM in prostate cancer;
The Revised International Staging System for Multiple Myeloma

The number staging system (most cancers).
This is used for staging solid tumor cancers like breast, bowel, and lung cancer and uses letters and numbers to explain what stage a cancer is at:

Stage 1: usually an early cancer that is small and is confined to the organ it started in.

Stage 2: the cancer is larger, but still contained within the organ it started in. It may have started to spread into lymph nodes.

Stage 3: an even larger cancer that may have started to spread into surrounding tissues, with cancer cells in nearby lymph nodes.

Stage 4: a cancer that has spread from where it started to another organ in the body: this is also referred to as metastatic or secondary cancer.

You’ll find more staging systems at the end of this section.

If metastatic disease is present, what are the exact locations and burden?

You may also hear your doctor describe your cancer in one of the following ways.

In situ – cancer (Stage 0) means abnormal cells exist only in the exact layer of tissue where they started and have not spread.
Localized – Localized cancer (Stage I) means the tumor has formed and started invading nearby tissue, but it hasn’t spread beyond the primary organ of origin.
Regional – Cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes, tissues, or organs.
Distant – Cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
Unknown – There isn’t enough information to determine the stage.

5. What Grade is your cancer?

Grading cancer assesses the makeup of cancer cells, trying to determine how aggressive the cancer is.

In pathology, cells that look more normal are described as well-differentiated. Cells that look less normal are called poorly differentiated or undifferentiated.

In most – but not all – cancers, tumors are graded as X, 1, 2, 3, or 4.

Grade X: Grade cannot be assessed (undetermined grade)
Grade 1: low grade or well differentiated – these cancer cells still look quite similar to healthy cells, with only small changes.
Grade 2: moderate or intermediate grade – these cancer cells have more obvious changes compared to healthy cells, and they might be growing more quickly than normal cells.
Grade 3 or 4: high grade or poorly differentiated –these cancer cells look very different to healthy cells and have very obviously altered structures and organisation. They may be more likely to spread.

Mitotic rate refers to how quickly tumor cells divide and proliferate.

Doubling time is the time it takes for a tumor’s volume or a specific marker (such as PSA in prostate cancer) to double.

Degree of differentiation refers to how abnormal the cells look under a microscope compared to healthy tissue. Indicates how fast the cancer might grow.

WHO/ISUP grading system for kidney cancer
The older Fuhrman grading system has largely been replaced by the WHO/ISUP grading system, which is now used primarily for clear-cell and papillary renal cell carcinomas. Fuhrman grades may still appear in older reports and research studies. Not every kidney-cancer subtype is graded using WHO/ISUP; for example, chromophobe renal cell carcinoma is generally not assigned this grade.

WHO/ISUP grade;

Grade 1 cells tend to be less aggressive and less likely to spread.
Grade 2 cells are more aggressive.
Grade 3 cells grow more quickly and indicate an increased likelihood that cancer might spread.
Grade 4 cells indicate an aggressive cancer that is more likely to spread.

The Fuhrman grading system for Kidney Cancer

The Fuhrman grading system ranks tumor cells on a scale of 1 through 4. The lower the number, the lower the grade.

Grade 1 cells are usually slow-growing, less aggressive, and are less likely to spread.
Grade 2 cells are faster-growing, moderately aggressive, and could spread.
Grade 3 cells are likely to grow more quickly, tend to be more aggressive, and are more likely to spread.
Grade 4 cells grow very quickly, are extremely aggressive and are very likely to spread.

6. What do biomarker testing and molecular profiling tell you about your cancer?
Cancer biomarker testing and molecular profiling involve analysing your tumour tissue or body fluids to detect specific DNA, RNA, protein or other molecular changes. Some of these findings can help predict whether a particular treatment is likely – or unlikely – to work for you.

Examples include hormone receptors and HER2 in breast cancer, EGFR or ALK alterations in lung cancer, RAS and BRAF mutations in colorectal cancer, BRCA1 or BRCA2 alterations in several cancers, and PD-L1 or mismatch-repair deficiency as markers of possible immunotherapy response. Some biomarkers indicate that a treatment is more likely to work, while others suggest resistance or an increased risk of toxicity.

More cancer staging systems
The TNM (Tumor, Node, and Metastasis) staging system (most cancers).
This is used for staging solid tumor cancers like breast, bowel, and lung cancer. It uses letters and numbers to explain what stage a cancer is at:

T – Primary tumor

TX: Main tumor cannot be measured.

T0: Main tumor cannot be found.

T1, T2, T3, T4: Refers to the size and/or extent of the main tumor. The higher the number after the T, the larger the tumor or the more it has grown into nearby tissues. Ts may be further divided to provide more detail, such as T3a and T3b.

N – Regional lymph nodes

NX: Cancer in nearby lymph nodes cannot be measured.

N0: There is no cancer in nearby lymph nodes.

N1, N2, N3: Refers to the number and location of lymph nodes that contain cancer. The higher the number after the N, the more lymph nodes that contain cancer.

M – Distant metastasis

MX: Metastasis cannot be measured.

M0: Cancer has not spread to other parts of the body.

M1: Cancer has spread to other parts of the body.

Example: a rating of T2 N1 M0 means a medium-sized tumor (T2), spread to nearby lymph nodes (N1), with no spread to distant parts of the body.

The Lugano system
(Hodgkin Lymphoma and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma).
Uses letters and numbers (1 -4) to explain what stage a cancer is at. Lymphomas that affect an organ outside the lymph system have an E added to the stage (for example, stage IIIE).

The higher the stage number, the more widely distributed the lymphoma is within the lymphatic system and/or outside it in extranodal organs or tissues.

Bulky disease describes large tumors in the chest. It is especially important for stage II lymphomas, as bulky disease might need more intensive treatment.

Rai staging system / Binet classification
(Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)).
The Lymphoma Research Foundation notes that the staging systems for CLL are different from those used for Hodgkin Lymphoma and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, including Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma (SLL). Doctors in the United States favour the Rai staging system, while the Binet classification system is more popular in Europe.¹

RAI staging system uses Stage 0 to 4
Binet staging system uses A, B, and C

The higher the stage number/letter, the more extensive the disease.

The FIGO staging system is used to diagnose some cancers of the female reproductive system.

The FIGO (2018) staging system for Cervical Cancer uses Stages 0 – 4
The FIGO staging system for Ovarian cancer uses Stages 0 to 4. The higher the stage number, the more extensive the disease.

Prostate Cancer Staging
The prostate cancer grade describes how abnormal the cancer glands look under the microscope. This gives an indication of how aggressively the cancer may behave.

Prostate cancer is commonly graded using the Grade Group system, which ranges from 1 to 5. Grade Group 1 is the least aggressive and Grade Group 5 the most aggressive.

The Grade Group is derived from the older Gleason scoring system, which adds together the two main microscopic growth patterns seen in the tumour. Because Gleason scores are still widely reported, both figures may appear on a pathology report—for example, Gleason 3 + 4 = 7 corresponds to Grade Group 2.

Gleason Score and Grade Group Comparison

Gleason Score	Grade Group	General interpretation
Gleason Score 6	Grade Group 1	Lowest-grade prostate cancer
Gleason Score 7 (3+4)	Grade Group 2	Mostly pattern 3, with some pattern 4
Gleason Score 7 (4+3)	Grade Group 3	Mostly pattern 4, therefore more aggressive than 3 + 4
Gleason Score 8	Grade Group 4	High grade
Gleason Score 9-10	Grade Group 5	Highest grade

Identifying your cancer subtype.

Many of the genes that contribute to cancer development fall into broad categories:

Tumor suppressor genes – BRCA1, BRCA2, p53 or TP53.
These are protective genes, but they can mutate and turn into cancer cells.
Oncogenes. – HER2, RAS
These turn cells cancerous. Mutations in these genes are not inherited.
DNA repair genes – BRCA1, BRCA2, and p53
These fix mistakes made when DNA is copied. Many of them function as tumor suppressor genes. If a person has an error in a DNA repair gene, mistakes remain uncorrected. Then, the mistakes become mutations. These mutations may eventually lead to cancer, particularly mutations in tumor suppressor genes or oncogenes. Mutations in DNA repair genes may be inherited or acquired.

The Lymphoma Research Foundation. Lymphoma Treatment Options. Accessed July 28, 2026. https://lymphoma.org/understanding-lymphoma/diagnosing-lymphoma/staging-and-prognosis/