Staging of head and neck cancer

A common way of staging head and neck cancers is the TNM staging system.

T describes the size of the tumour and whether it has begun to spread to nearby structures, such as the skin or muscle.

N describes whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes.

M describes whether the cancer has spread to another part of the body (secondary or metastatic cancer).

The staging of the different types of head and neck cancers are all slightly different. Your doctor or nurse can give you more details about the stage of your cancer.

Grading

Grading refers to the appearance of the cancer cells under the microscope. The grade gives an idea of how quickly the cancer may develop. Squamous cell cancers of the head and neck are graded from 1–3.

Low-grade or grade 1 means that the cancer cells look very like normal cells in the head and neck area. 

In high-grade or grade 3 cancers the cells look very abnormal and are more likely to spread.

Moderate-grade or grade 2 cancers fall between these two grades and have a level of activity somewhere between.