About Stage III Breast Cancer

Breast cancers that reach stage III have a bigger presence in the breast and the tissues around it. Stage III breast cancer is further subdivided as IIIA, in which the tumor is smaller than five centimeters with more than four underarm lymph nodes with cancer, or the tumor is larger than five centimeters with at least one positive lymph node. In stage IIIB, the tumor has moved into the chest wall, invading chest muscle and/or lymph nodes in the chest. Stage III breast cancer may be the point at which saving treatments might no longer be a good option. Some combination of radiation, chemotherapy, and mastectomy might be needed to remove the cancer from your body.