How is penile cancer staged?
Staging is the process of finding out how far a cancer has spread. Once penile cancer is diagnosed, your doctor will determine the stage of the cancer using the results of exams, biopsies, and any imaging tests you have had. (These were described in the section, “How is penile cancer diagnosed?”) The stage of your cancer is a very important factor in planning your treatment and estimating your prognosis (outlook). The stage of a cancer does not change over time, even if the cancer progresses. A cancer that comes back or spreads is still referred to by the stage it was given when it was first found and diagnosed, only information about the current extent of the cancer is added. A person keeps the same diagnosis stage, but more information is added to the diagnosis to explain the current disease status If you have penile cancer, ask your cancer care team to explain staging in a way that you can understand. Knowing all you can about staging will let you take a more active role in making i
