What is stage IIIA of rectal cancer

What is stage IIIA colorectal cancer?

There are two types of rectal cancer staging: clinical staging and postoperative pathological clinical staging. The staging standards for different tumors are also different. The clinical symptoms of rectal cancer are difficult to detect, so it is generally diagnosed as advanced colorectal cancer.

There are 5 stages of colorectal cancer, as follows:

Stage 0: The cancer is in its early stages and only exists in the innermost lining of the intestine.

Stage I: Cancer cells have invaded many areas of the colon lining.

Stage II: Cancer cells have spread beyond the intestines and into surrounding tissues but not to the lymph nodes.

Stage III: Cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes but has not spread to other parts of the body.

Stage IV: Cancer cells have spread to other parts of the body. Bowel cancer is more likely to metastasize to the liver and lungs first.

Stage IIIA means that the primary tumor has not broken through the entire layer of the intestinal wall, and there is metastasis to the perianal lymph nodes, but the number of metastatic lymph nodes does not exceed 6. This is a stage of the disease that requires postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy and is in the middle to late stages.