How many stages of cancer are there?

Question: How many stages of cancer are there?

Asked by emmaandizzy to Gioia, Iain, Jo, Leo, Mariam on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: Your Research. This question was also asked by sarlotte.
- Joanna Watson answered on 15 Jun 2010:
  
  Wow – that’s a really tough question! It depends what you call stages.
  
  There are some stages that doctors use to describe cancer which usually give an idea of how advanced it is and these are slightly different for different cancers.
  
  They are generally split into cancers that are only in one part of the body, ones that have spread to the neighbouring parts of the body and ones that have spread to parts of the body a long way away from the original site like the brain, the lungs or the liver.
- Mariam Orme answered on 20 Jun 2010:
  
  It depends on the type of cancer and the staging system used, but I think that most commonly, cancers tend to be divided into four stages, with four being the most advanced.
  A doctor would probably be able to tell you more about this, or maybe one of the other scientists will!
- Leo Garcia answered on 21 Jun 2010:
  
  It depends upon the type of cancer, and the type of classification system!
  
  http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/about-cancer/cancer-questions/how-many-stages-of-cancer-are-there
  
  Most types of cancers are divided into 4 stages, where stage 1 means that the cancer is small and contained, and 4 means the cancer has spread to somewhere else in the body.

Question: How many stages of cancer are there?