Affiliation:
1. From the Department of Histopathology, Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom (Dr Nicholson); the Department of Pathology, The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Dr Tsao); the Department of Pathology (Dr Travis) and the Thoracic Service, Department of Surgery (Dr Rusch), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York; the Depa
Abstract
Context
The Staging and Prognostic Factors Committee of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, in conjunction with the International Mesothelioma Interest Group, the International Thymic Malignancy Interest Group, and the Worldwide Esophageal Cancer Collaboration, developed proposals for the 8th edition of their respective tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) staging classification systems.
Objective
To review these changes and discuss issues for the reporting pathologist.
Data Sources
Proposals were based on international databases of lung (N = 94 708), with an external validation using the US National Cancer Database; mesothelioma (N = 3519); thymic epithelial tumors (10 808); and epithelial cancers of the esophagus and esophagogastric junction (N = 22 654).
Conclusions
These proposals have been mostly accepted by the Union for International Cancer Control and the American Joint Committee on Cancer and incorporated into their respective staging manuals (2017). The Union for International Cancer Control recommended implementation beginning in January 2017; however, the American Joint Committee on Cancer has deferred deployment of the eighth TNM until January 1, 2018, to ensure appropriate infrastructure for data collection. This manuscript summarizes the updated staging of thoracic malignancies, specifically highlighting changes from the 7th edition that are relevant to pathologic staging. Histopathologists should become familiar with, and start to incorporate, the 8th edition staging in their daily reporting of thoracic cancers henceforth.
Publisher
Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Subject
Medical Laboratory Technology,General Medicine,Pathology and Forensic Medicine