Journal of Radiology
Open Access

Abstract

Staging cancers is an essential component of oncology practice. TNM staging system provides a common language to communicate on the disease extent of an individual patient. It groups patients with similar levels of disease and similar outcomes together. It is crucial in decision making on management of cancers and predicting prognosis. With advances in treatment and development of new drugs and strategies, the outcomes and survival statistics change over time. As such, there is a need for reviewing the staging system every few years. TNM 8th edition is currently in practice and it has some big changes in staging of lung cancer. The importance of tumor size is highlighted in the new staging system and the T stage descriptor changes with every cm increase in tumor size. Nodal stage has largely remained unchanged but N descriptors have been proposed for future validation. There is no change in M1a, as a departure from the past oligometastases has been recognized as a separate category. Single metastasis in a single organ is M1b while multiple metastases in a single or multiple organ is now M1c. The purpose of this lecture is to look at the rationale behind the changes in staging of lung cancers, getting familiar with the new staging system and the optimal evaluating tools to accurately stage lung cancers.

Biography

Arvind K Chaturvedi has completed his MD in 1980 and is the Director of Radiology at the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre, New Delhi, India. He also served as the Medical Director of the institute. He has been an expert appointed by IAEA, Vienna in the field of oncological imaging and has been a Visiting Professor to the University of Rochester in 2006. He has authored over 40 scientific papers, 2 book chapters, has delivered over 100 guest lectures in India and abroad. His current interests include radiofrequency ablation of tumors, Body Imaging and optimizing healthcare delivery.