Exciting News! Our Gainesville Office has moved to Bristow – 9450 Innovation Drive, Manassas, VA 20110. Same great providers and care team, same exceptional care, new, larger space to better serve our patients.
If the biopsy shows that cancer is present, your doctor needs to know the extent (stage) of the disease to plan the best treatment. The stage is based on whether the tumor has invaded nearby tissues, whether the cancer has spread and, if so, to what parts of the body.
Your doctor may order some of the following tests:
Your doctor may also use other tests (such as MRI) to see whether the cancer has spread. Sometimes staging is not complete until after surgery to remove the tumor. (Surgery for colorectal cancer is described in the “Treatment” section.)
Doctors describe colorectal cancer by the following stages: