A basic understanding of grading and staging is necessary as an oncology technician. How the oncologist approaches cancer patients in general terms provides the foundation to understanding individual cancer types. With technicians having heavy involvement in communicating with clients, they need to understand how to describe the terminology around cancer care with confidence. Browsing previous proceedings from VCS, I do not see any previous sessions discussing in depth the diagnostic approach as a whole; rather, most sessions have focused on individual diagnostics. This interactive presentation will focus on tying together all the diagnostics in a pragmatic approach to help technicians understand why we perform the tests we do every day. We will start with a focus on the two most important questions to the oncologist: “What is it?” and “Where is it?”. We will then dissect the tests necessary to determine the answers to these two questions.