The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)/International Union against Cancer (UICC) stage classification system stresses the importance of the malignancy grade in sarcoma. In general, in addition to grading, other prognostic factors are tumour size and tumour depth for limb sarcomas. Tumour site, resectability and presence of metastases are also important.
American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)/International Union against Cancer (UICC) TNM staging system:
Primary tumour (T)
TX
| Primary tumour cannot be assessed
|
T0
| No evidence of primary tumour
|
T1
| Tumour 5 cm or less in greatest dimensiona
|
T1a
| Superficial tumour
|
T1b
| Deep tumour
|
T2
| Tumour >5 cm in greatest dimensiona
|
T2a
| Superficial tumour
|
T2b
| Deep tumour
|
Regional lymph nodes (N)
NX
| Regional lymph nodes cannot be assessed
|
N0
| No regional lymph node metastasis
|
N1b
| Regional lymph node metastasis
|
Distant metastasis (M)
M0
| No distant metastasis
|
M1
| Distant metastasis
|
Anatomic stage/prognostic groups:
Stage IA
T1a
| N0
| M0
| G1, GX
|
T1b
| N0
| M0
| G1, GX
|
Stage IB
T2a
| N0
| M0
| G1, GX
|
T2b
| N0
| M0
|
G1, GX
|
Stage IIA
T1a
| N0
| M0
| G2, G3
|
T1b
| N0
|
M0
|
G2, G3
|
Stage IIB
Stage III
T2a, T2b
| N0
| M0
|
G3
|
Any T
| N1
|
M0
| Any G
|
Stage IV
American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC), Chicago, Illinois. The original source for this material is the AJCC Cancer Staging Handbook, Seventh Edition (2010) published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC,
www.springerlink.com.
