THE BRIGHAM STAGING SYSTEM

Stage 1 : Mesothelioma can be removed with surgery and there are no lymph nodes containing cancer cells.

Stage 2 : Mesothelioma can be removed with surgery but there are lymph nodes containing cancer cells.

Stage 3 : Mesothelioma cannot be removed with surgery because it has spread into the chest wall, heart, or through the diaphragm into the peritoneum. There may or may not be lymph nodes containing cancer cells.

Stage 4 : Mesothelioma has spread via the bloodstream to other organs in the body such as the liver, brain or bone.

Peritoneal mesothelioma has no established staging system. Since the TNM system is the most commonly used system for staging cancer this is used for staging peritoneal mesothelioma also.