Cancer staging: Encyclopedia II - Cancer staging - Systems of staging

Cancer staging - Systems of staging

Staging systems are specific for each type of cancer (e.g. breast cancer and lung cancer). Some cancers, however, don't have a staging system. Often competing staging sytems exist for the same type of cancer; however, the universally-accepted staging system is that of the UICC, which has merged its staging system with that of the AJCC.

Cancer staging - Blood

• lymphomas: uses Ann Arbor staging

• Hodgkin's Disease#Staging: follows a scale from I-IV and can be indicated further by an A or B, depending on whether a patient is unsymptomatic or has symptoms such as fevers. It is known as the "Cotswold System" or "Modified Ann Arbor Staging System". [1]

Cancer staging - Solid

For solid tumors, TNM is by far the most commonly used system, but it has been adapted for some conditions.

• breast_cancer#Staging: Uses TNM [2]

• cervical cancer#Staging: uses "FIGO" (similar to TNM). For premalignant dysplastic changes, the CIN (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia) grading system is used. [3]

• colon_cancer#Staging: originally consisted of four stages: A,B,C,and D (the "Duke Staging System"). More recently, colon cancer staging is indicated either by the original A-D stages or by TNM. [4]

• kidney cancer: uses TNM [5]

• cancer of the larynx: Uses TNM [6]

• liver cancer#Staging_and_prognosis: uses Stages I-IV [7]

• lung cancer: uses TNM [8] or [9]

• malignant_melanoma#Staging: TNM used. Also of importance are the "Clark level" and "Breslow depth" which refer to the microscopic depth of tumor invasion ("Microstaging"). [10]

• prostate cancer staging: outside of US, TNM almost universally used. Inside US, Jewett-Whitmore somtimes used. [11].

• skin cancer: uses TNM [12]

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Systems of staging", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki