AJCC Cancer Staging Manual

Description

This manual is used by physicians and health care professionals throughout the world to facilitate the uniform description and reporting of neoplastic diseases. Proper classification and staging is essential for the physician to assign proper treatment, evaluate results of management and clinical trials, and to serve as the standard for local, regional and international reporting on cancer incidence and outcome. 

The Eighth Edition of the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual brings together all the current available information on staging of cancer at various anatomic sites and incorporates newly acquired knowledge on the molecular underpinnings of cancer, increased availability of high throughput testing, advances in informatics and computational biology, increased coordination in cancer care, maturing data, oncology therapies becoming more sophisticated and the globalization of cancer.  The current revision provides evidence-based staging based upon the established tenets of TNM classification supplemented by selected molecular markers. Relevant markers supported by evidence and of sufficient impact for treatment decisions have been included to define stage. 

The Eighth Edition of the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual will remain the gold standard reference for oncologists, pathologists, surgeons, cancer registrars and medical professionals world-wide to ensure that all those caring for cancer patients are fully versed in the language of cancer staging. 

The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) was established in 1959 to formulate and publish systems of classification of cancer, including staging and end-results reporting, that will be acceptable to and used by the medical profession for selecting the most effective treatment, determining prognosis, and continuing evaluation of cancer control measures. The AJCC is composed of 18 member organizations, and its activities are administered by the Chicago-based American College of Surgeons.