Tumor Staging and Grading: A Primer

摘要: Cancer staging and grading are used to predict the clinical behavior of malignancies, establish appropriate therapies, facilitate exchange precise information between clinicians. The internationally accepted criteria for cancer staging, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) system, includes: (1) tumor size local growth (T); (2) extent lymph node metastases (N); (3) occurrence distant (M). Clinical stage is established before initiation therapy depends on physical examination, laboratory findings, imaging studies. Pathologic determined following surgical exploration disease spread histological examination tissue. TNM classification system has evolved over 50 years accommodate increasing knowledge about biology. Efforts ongoing keep both synchronized with most sophisticated technology simple ease clinician/patient use. Upcoming molecular technologies, such as genomic proteomic profiling tumors, microRNA profiling, even ex vivo living tissue treatment, could improve current system. This chapter describes using breast, lung, ovarian, prostate examples.