Rethinking the Current American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM Staging System for Medullary Thyroid Cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Controversy exists around the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM staging system for medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). Because of the rarity of the disease and limited available data, the staging system for MTC has been largely extrapolated from staging for differentiated thyroid cancer.

Objectives

To evaluate how well the current (seventh and eighth editions) AJCC TNM staging system correlates with survival for patients with MTC and to suggest a possible revision.

Design, setting, and participants

This population-based retrospective cohort analysis used the National Cancer Database to select patients aged 18 years or older diagnosed with MTC in the United States between 1998 and 2012. Patient demographic and tumor characteristics were assessed, and

SUBMITTER: Adam MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5710458 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature