So far, my husband's prostate cancer is doing that. In fact, his prostate looks perfect, too! Many doctors have thought this was lymphoma. But the biopsy comes back prostate. We are lucky that it has not crossed over anywhere else. Still stage four because it is in lymph nodes all the way up to his neck.
The hormore treatment worked well for three menths and shrank back all the lymph nodes, but then they grew back. No he is on chemo.

I had colon cancer stage IIIA because it was found in 2/26 lymph nodes, but it had not metastasized to any other organ. I was fortunate to have caught it early enough before it went anywhere else. Because it was found in the nodes, I did have a 6-month course of chemo (difference drugs, however).

The lymphatic system is the primary route of all cancers. Cancer cannot suddenly jump from colon to another organ except by progressing through lymph nodes. If the cancer can be killed or managed within the existing affected lymph nodes then it most likely will not affect other organs.

Thank you for your responses. Even the medical team at Dana Farber in Boston had never seen rectal cancer that spread exclusively to lymphatic system. It is quite rare, and quite lethal. I'm getting aggressive treatment as noted above to control the disease but the treatment is killing me. And, since it's just a chemical game now, I'm beginning to lose hope.

Maybe I am misunderstanding something. By definition, stage III colorectal cancer means spread to lymph nodes but not to other organs. Are your saying your oncologist has never heard of stage III colorectal cancer?

Stage III is spread to local lymph nodes is the way I understand it. Mine has spread not only to pelvis lymph nodes and peritoneal but below and above my diaphram up into my left neck. That makes it stage 4 and inoperable. It is amazing that on 11/30/11, my PET was negative and the PET of 2/7/11 showed all this spread that occurred while I was being radiated in the pelvis and taking Xeloda.