Yes. In some cases, like mine, it could be “estimated” before meeting with oncologist, but this rare I think. My cancer was discovered (finally) with an ultrasound; I had been pretty sick for 5 months but Kaiser general practitioner kind of ignored my complaints. After CT and PET and endoscopy the size of tumor was estimated along with the potential for how many lymph nodes might be impacted. If you look online, you may be able to figure out the staging yourself. Of course, what’s really going on May only be figured out once the surgeon opens you up. I never saw an oncologist until I got out of the hospital or following my distal surgery. It’s only because my dad had this disease and it was extremely aggressive and so I wanted to act really quickly and get into surgery following the ultrasound and PET scan results.

Make a list of questions for your oncology consult. I had so many tests & different folks to talk with before I found out my stage & "prognosis". I had thought I was stage I until the oncologist told me I was stage IV. On 29 June I will be at 3 years after being given 11 months. My "local" oncologist is great!