AJCC Cancer Staging Manual brings together the relevant, evidence-based criteria for staging of cancer

SpringerNov 4 2009

AJCC Cancer Staging Manual now in 7th edition / Essential for every clinician involved in cancer diagnosis and treatment

Physicians and health care professionals around the world need a tool to facilitate the uniform description and reporting of cancer. Proper staging is essential to determine appropriate treatment, evaluate results of management and clinical trials, and to serve as the standard for local, regional and international reporting on cancer incidence and outcomes. The newly published seventh edition of the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, available in October 2009, brings together the relevant, evidence-based criteria for staging of cancer for 52 anatomic primary sites.

As knowledge of cancer biology expands, cancer staging must incorporate these advances. The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Cancer Staging System is the preeminent paradigm used by physicians throughout the world to diagnose cancer and determine the extent of disease.

The AJCC Cancer Staging Manual is the "home base" product, which includes the rationale and rules for staging, the background explanation of the changes between the sixth and seventh editions, the definitions of tumor, lymph node involvement, and metastasis, stage groupings and histologic grade for 52 primary cancer sites. The successful and equally clinically relevant spin-off products are the AJCC Cancer Staging Handbook, which features all the staging information offered in the Manual in a pocket-size book, and the AJCC Cancer Staging Atlas, offering a highly visual representation with hundreds of additional illustrations. The AJCC e-Staging Tool, a web-based staging application designed to help clinicians stage patients in the clinical setting from desktop, laptop or handheld device, will be launched in December 2009.

The Annals of Oncology made this evaluation of the 6th edition: "At present there is no other book available which gives such a complete detailed account of stage definition, prognostic factors, prognosis and diagnostic procedures for stage definition in a comprehensive way as the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual- This book is a 'must' for all involved in cancer diagnosis and treatment."