Malignant tumors are not necessarily advanced cancer, but may also be early or mid-stage cancer. Malignant tumors are differentiated by disease pathology, and tumors can be classified as malignant as well as benign tumors. Malignant tumors are more malignant, invasive, prone to distant metastasis and progress faster; benign tumors are less malignant and less prone to distant metastasis, so those in the late stage of cancer are malignant tumors, while malignant tumors may be in the early, middle or even late stage of cancer. Therefore, malignant tumors do not necessarily belong to the late stage of cancer, while the early, middle and late stages of tumors are distinguished from the whole cancer development process.