Evolution of the International Gastric Cancer Staging Classification

Abstract

Progress in the treatment of stomach cancer required the development and unification of the TNM system for tumor classification. This began in 1966 with the initial UICC clinical staging system. The Japanese contributed heavily to its 1968 revision. In 1970 the American Joint Committee on Cancer established a pathologic staging system, which was revised in 1978 and 1983. With additional data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) surveys and the enormous data from the Japanese, a unified clinical and pathologic staging system was concluded in 1984. This has been approved by the AJCC and UICC. There now exists a unified staging system for stomach cancer that should be used worldwide.