Abstract
The Tumour Node Metastasis (TNM) system for staging malignancies was developed to allow the facilitation of exchange of information between various Head and Neck (H + N) centres, to aid in treatment planning, provide indication of prognosis and evaluate results of treatment. A retrospective study was conducted at our hospital to distinguish the impact on pathological staging following implementation of TNM8. The objectives of the study was to investigate the histopathologic staging of tumours exhibiting stage migration after implementation of TNM8. Data was collected from January 2018 till May 2020 for patients who had surgical treatment for oral cavity cancers.A total of 80 patients received surgical treatment after their cancer diagnosis and 50 received full pathological staging. Our results show a third (17/50) have been upstaged under the new edition of staging. We identified amendments and changes following the first publication has led to re-staging of patients. Initial analysis of our data suggest TNM8 gives an improved staging for treatment, prognostic and communication purposes, as it captures patient categories that were considered “high-risk” despite their nominal low stage. However The TNM 8 is still in the early stages and hence parallel use of TNM 7 appears necessary.
Published Version
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