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Multidisciplinary Management of Rectal Cancer pp 45–50Cite as

Is TNM Staging the Most Relevant Prognostic Clinical Factor to Consider for Treatment Decisions Before and After Surgery?

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Abstract

The tumour nodes metastasis (TNM) system is currently the most utilised staging system to predict outcome and guide the management of patients with rectal cancer. Serial changes to the system have been made over recent years with different versions being used around the world leading to confusion. When determining treatment pathways, multidisciplinary teams (MDT) often take into account various tumour, treatment and patient-related prognostic factors in addition to TNM stage. These additional factors may include tumour type, grade, mismatch repair status, depth of extramural spread, circumferential resection margin status, lymphovascular invasion, tumour budding, tumour cell density, post-treatment regression and plane of surgical excision. This raises the question as to whether a more comprehensive prognostic staging system should be considered rather than the current TNM system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pathology and Tumour Biology, Leeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Caroline A. Young BMBCh, MA & Nicholas P. West PhD, FRCPath

Authors
  1. Caroline A. Young BMBCh, MA
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  2. Nicholas P. West PhD, FRCPath
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Correspondence to Nicholas P. West PhD, FRCPath .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Radiation Oncology, Università Cattolica S Cuore, Rome, Italy

    Vincenzo Valentini

  2. Head, Div. Clinical Oncology Research, University Clinic Halle (Saale), Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany

    Hans-Joachim Schmoll

  3. Department of Surgery, Leiden Univ Med Ctr, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Cornelis J. H. van de Velde

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Young, C.A., West, N.P. (2018). Is TNM Staging the Most Relevant Prognostic Clinical Factor to Consider for Treatment Decisions Before and After Surgery?. In: Valentini, V., Schmoll, HJ., van de Velde, C. (eds) Multidisciplinary Management of Rectal Cancer. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43217-5_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43217-5_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43215-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43217-5

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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