How long it takes from early to late stage of cancer is related to many factors such as the site and type of cancer, the patient’s physical condition and treatment, and needs to be analyzed specifically. Some patients’ cancers develop quickly from early to advanced stages, taking only a few months, such as malignant melanoma with high malignancy, which can develop from early stage to extensive metastasis throughout the body in a few months. Other inert tumors, such as follicular lymphoma, develop more slowly and may take more than 10 years, or even longer, to progress from early to advanced stages. Many early-stage tumors are potentially curable with aggressive treatment and do not continue to progress to advanced stages. Once diagnosed with cancer all should be treated as early as possible to try to avoid development to advanced stages. For some cancers with faster development, higher malignancy and prone to metastasis, more attention should be paid to observation and active comprehensive anti-tumor treatment to slow down the development of the disease.