The process of determining the extent of cancer in the body, including size, location, and spread is called which?

• A. Tumor Staging
• B. Tumor Grading
• C. Biopsy
• D. Histology

Answer: (A)

Staging describes the extent of cancer in the body, including size, location, and spread to nearby nodes or distant sites. This information helps clinicians decide on the best treatments and gives a sense of prognosis. In many cancers, the TNM system is used: T for the size and extent of the primary tumor, N for regional lymph node involvement, and M for metastasis.

Grading, by contrast, looks at how the cancer cells appear under the microscope and how aggressive they look, not how far the disease has spread. Biopsy is the procedure to obtain tissue samples for examination, and histology is the study of tissue structure in those samples.