What does stage three mean?

[furlibusea]

What is “stage three” lung cancer?

[Duckster]

*  Stage O: The cancer is located only in the inner lining surface of an organ and is not invading the organ.
* Stage I: The cancer has not spread past the tissue or organ where it started.
* Stage II: There is some local and regional spread of cancer, sometimes to lymph nodes.
* Stage III: There is extensive local and regional spread of cancer, usually to draining lymph nodes.
* Stage IV: The cancer has spread (metastasized) beyond the regional lymph nodes to distant parts of the body.

Source: http://www.cancer.med.umich.edu/learn/typstage.htm

[brossa]

More specifically: from the American Cancer Society

Stage IIIA; T1 or 2, N2, M0 or T3, N1 or 2, M0: The cancer can be any size, or involves a main bronchus, but is not near the carina or it has spread to the pleura or the cancer is partially clogging the airways. It has spread to nodes in the middle of the chest (mediastinum), but not to distant sites, OR, It has spread to the chest wall or the diaphragm, the mediastinal pleura, or membranes surrounding the heart, or it invades a main bronchus and is close to the carina or it has grown into the airways enough to cause an entire lung to collapse or to cause pneumonia in the entire lung. It has spread to lymph nodes anywhere in the chest on the same side as the cancer, but not to distant sites.
Stage IIIB; T1, 2 or 3, N3, M0 or T4, N0, 1, 2 or 3, M0: The cancer can be of any size. It has spread to lymph nodes around the collarbone on either side, or to hilar or mediastinal lymph nodes on the side opposite the cancerous lung OR, It has spread to the mediastinum, the heart, the windpipe (trachea), the esophagus (tube connecting the throat to the stomach), the backbone, or the carina or two or more separate tumor nodules are present in the same lobe, or there is a fluid containing cancer cells in the space surrounding the lung. The cancer may or may not have spread to lymph nodes. It has not spread to distant sites.

Stage III lung cancer is considered advanced, and has a correspondingly poor prognosis: 8% 5-year survival on average.

[furlibusea]

Thankyou. That is sort of what I thought. I should have done the search myself, but was kind of rattled.