If cancer is found in the prostate, the doctor needs to know the stage, or extent, of the disease. Staging is a careful attempt to find out whether the cancer has spread and, if so, what parts of the body are affected. The doctor may use various blood and imaging tests to learn the stage of the disease. Treatment decisions depend on these findings.

The results of staging tests help the doctor decide which stage best describes a patient's disease:

• Stage I (A)--The cancer cannot be detected by rectal exam and causes no symptoms. The cancer is usually found during surgery to relieve problems with urination. State I tumors may be in more than one area of the prostate, but there is no evidence of spread outside the prostate.
• Stage II (B)--The tumor is felt in a rectal exam or detected by a blood test, but there is no evidence that the cancer has spread outside the prostate.
• Stage III (C)--The cancer has spread outside the prostate to nearby tissues.
• Stage IV (D)--Cancer cells have spread to lymph nodes or to other parts of the body.

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