title: Melanoma staging: where are we now?
abstract: The seventh version of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Melanoma Staging guidelines, published in 2009, has significant revisions compared with the previous version. The current schema was based on the largest melanoma patient cohort analyzed to date and is the result of a multivariate analysis of 30,946 patients with stages I, II, and III melanoma and 7972 patients with stage IV melanoma. This article summarizes the findings and the new definitions included in the 2009 AJCC Melanoma Staging and Classification. The TNM categories and the stage groupings are defined. Changes in the melanoma staging system are summarized.
authors.affiliation: Dermatopathology Unit, Pathology Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit Street, WRN 820, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Adriano
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Piris
authors.forename: Alice Coelho
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Lobo
authors.forename: Lyn M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Duncan
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008545:Melanoma / Q000556:secondary*; D008940:Mitotic Index; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*