A cancer diagnosis can bring shock, confusion and a flood of questions. In those first days and weeks, people often search everywhere for information - Google, social media, family and friends, online forums - and artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT. While these resources can offer general background, they rarely capture the unique details that shape someone's individual diagnosis and prognosis.
"As much as the internet and AI can be helpful starting points, they often lack the nuance for medical decisions," says Fawzi Abu Rous, M.D., a thoracic medical oncologist and clinical researcher at Henry Ford Health. "Cancer is deeply personal. What you read online or get from an AI tool may not apply to your tumor type, health history or treatment plan."
Here, Dr. Abu Rous provides insights to the most common questions about cancer staging and survival rates.
What are cancer stages and what do they indicate?
Dr. Abu Rous: Cancer staging - typically categorized from stage 1 through stage 4 - helps describe how far the cancer has spread from its original location. Some cancers include subdivisions such as A, B or C to give even more specific detail. Here's what each stage means:
- Stage 1 - 2: Early stage, generally confined to the organ where the cancer started.
- Stage 3: Locally advanced cancer that may involve nearby tissues or lymph nodes.
- Stage 4: Cancer that has spread (metastasized) to distant parts of the body.
Staging gives us a roadmap of the cancer's extent. It helps guide internal treatment decisions but does not tell the full story of how a cancer will behave or respond to therapy.
Are stages different for every type of cancer?
Dr. Abu Rous: Yes. Each cancer type uses staging criteria specific to its biology and how it typically spreads. Lung cancer is staged differently than breast cancer, prostate cancer or colon cancer. However, the common theme across staging symptoms is determining where the cancer is, whether localized, regionally advanced or metastatic. Even within the same stage, two cancers can act very differently based on molecular features, genetics and tumor behavior - factors that staging alone cannot capture.
Why are cancer stages important?
Dr. Abu Rous: Staging plays a crucial role in designing the best treatment approach. It helps the care team decide:
- Whether surgery is important
- Whether chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy or radiation is needed
- Whether a combination of treatments or a clinical trial may provide the best outcome
For early-stage cancers, treatment may be less aggressive. For more advanced cancers, we typically need to escalate therapy. But perhaps most importantly, early detection through screening can dramatically improve outcomes by catching cancer before it spreads.
Cancer Care at Henry Ford
How reliable are cancer survival rates?
Dr. Abu Rous: Survival rates can offer general context, but they are not predictions for any one person. They represent averages from large groups of patients - often from data collected years ago, before the latest treatments existed. I treat patients with stage 4 cancer who live many years because their cancer responds exceptionally well to immunotherapy or targeted drugs. And I've seen early-stage cancers behave aggressively due to specific molecular profiles.
The numbers never tell the whole story. Survival rates also cannot account for differences in tumor biology, how a patient responds to modern treatments, access to new drugs or clinical trials and improvements in supportive care. This is why relying solely on statistics - or information from the internet or AI - can be misleading.
Where can you find reliable information about staging and survival rates?
Dr. Abu Rous: The doctor who is treating you remains the most accurate and personalized source of information. They know the details of your cancer - its stage, molecular markers, growth patterns and how you're responding to therapy. There's nothing wrong with doing your own research or asking AI tools like ChatGPT for general explanations. But the information rarely applies directly to your care. While staging is important, ongoing assessments during treatment usually offer more meaningful information about how the cancer is responding and what to expect moving forward. Online resources can help you understand the broader landscape but cancer care is individualized and the best guidance will always come from your cancer team.
Reviewed by Fawzi Abu Rous, M.D., an oncologist and researcher who specializes in lung cancer. He sees patients at Henry Ford Cancer - Detroit and Henry Ford Medical Center - Columbus.
