Whether breast cancer is early or middle stage can be determined by the size of the breast tumor and whether the breast tumor has metastasis.
Early stage breast cancer patients usually have no obvious symptoms, and a smaller breast lump, usually around 2 centimeters, can be felt by touching. Intermediate stage breast cancer patients will have larger breast lumps, accompanied by pain, redness, swelling, and some skin ulcers.
Multiple metastases of mid-stage breast cancer can be judged by the primary tumor focus, lymph node involvement and distant metastases. When mid-stage breast cancer multiple metastasis is present, it may cause clinical symptoms such as cough, bone pain, chest pain and so on.
In the early stage of breast cancer, the lesion is confined to the breast, and there is no spread of surrounding tissues around the breast and no metastasis to distant organs such as lungs. In the middle stage of breast cancer, in addition to localized lesions, there will be metastases to the breast skin, pleura and other surrounding tissues.
Therefore, when a patient is diagnosed with breast cancer, he/she should consult a doctor in time and choose effective treatment according to the actual degree of the disease.