Annual meeting of the TNM Core Committee on the classification of cancer stages
The reference to cancer stages (I, II, III and IV) in a cancer diagnosis comes from the international TNM (“Tumour”, “Nodes”, “Metastases”) classification system, which describes how advanced a cancer is. It has been maintained by UICC for the past 70 years, and every year the Core Committee meets to discuss updates to the system.
This past week in Geneva, the TNM Core Committee discussed updates to UICC's TNM Classification system for cancer staging and related publications, the uptake of e-learning materials and plans for future e-learning activities.
HIGHLIGHTS
- The "TNM Classification", which UICC has guided for the past 70 years, is the means by which doctors determine how advanced a cancer is when it is diagnosed.
- The TNM Annual Meeting 2023 took place early May as a hybrid event, with 10 in-person participants and 13 online participants from different parts of the world. They represented partners of the TNM project.
- The meeting discussed TNM-related publications, e-learning materials, and the progress of the "Concepts, Definitions and Recommendations for Prognostic Factors and Clinical Outcomes for Cancer Control" project, with plans for future updates and collaborations.
The TNM Annual Meeting 2023 took place this past week as a hybrid event, with 10 people participating in person at UICC’s offices in Geneva, Switzerland, and 13 online participants from different parts of the world, and was co-chaired by Dr Mary Gospodarowicz, UICC Past President and Medical Director at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and Dr James Brierly, Professor at the Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto and staff physician at the Department of Radiation Oncology of the Princess Margaret Hospital.
In addition to the TNM Core Committee, the meeting was attended by the partners of the TNM project, with representatives from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) with the WHO Blue Books for classification of tumours and the Global Initiative for Cancer Registries (GICR), the International Association of Cancer Registries (IACR), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR), the WHO International Classification of Diseases 11 (ICD-11) team, NCI The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO).
The participants discussed TNM-related publications, including the TNM Classification, TNM Atlas, TNM Supplement and the Manual of Clinical Oncology. They notably addressed plans for future publications, including the 9th edition of the TNM Classification.
The meeting covered the uptake of e-learning materials, including TNM e-learning modules and short educational videos on cancer staging, as well as plans for future e-learning activities. This is particularly important as e-learning has become an increasingly popular way of learning in the wake of the pandemic.
The TNM annual meeting 2023 also provided an update on the progress of the “Concepts, Definitions and Recommendations for Prognostic Factors and Clinical Outcomes for Cancer Control” project, run in collaboration with NCI US.
“Seventy years on, the TNM Project remains relevant and forward thinking. Its publications remain widely used by cancer professionals worldwide, who rely on them for effective cancer diagnosis and treatment. We look forward to important updates and new publications and collaborations over the next few years.”
– Dr James Brierly, co-Chair of the TNM Core Committee
Last update
Friday 05 May 2023
