This page was reviewed under our medical and editorial policy by
Maurie Markman, MD, President, Medicine & Science.
This page was updated on June 7, 2022.
Vaginal cancer staging describes how large a cancer is, and the degree to which the disease has spread. Vaginal cancer stages are based on three categories:
T (tumor): This describes the primary tumor size.
N (node): This indicates whether the vaginal cancer cells have spread to regional lymph nodes.
M (metastasis): This refers to whether the cancer has metastasized (spread to distant areas of the body).
Once the individual T, N, M components are scored, they are combined to determine the overall stage group, which will be one of the following.
Stage 0: This stage is also known as vaginal epithelial neoplasia 3 (VAIN 3), or carcinoma in situ. Cancer cells are restricted to the top epithelial layer of cells lining the vagina and have not invaded any deeper.
Stage 1 vaginal cancer: The cancer cells have invaded deeper tissue layers of the vagina, but they have not spread beyond the vagina to nearby structures or lymph nodes.
Stage 2 vaginal cancer: Cancer cells have reached the connective tissue surrounding the vagina but have not yet spread to nearby organs or lymph nodes.
Stage 3 vaginal cancer: Cancer has spread beyond the vagina to the walls of the pelvis and/or nearby lymph nodes, but it has not spread to distant organs.
Stage 4 vaginal cancer: Stage 4 vaginal cancer is divided into two separate subcategories: