Authors: Alfio Ferlito Alessandra Rinaldo Kenneth O Devaney
Publish Date: 2008/09/20
Volume: 266, Issue: 1, Pages: 157-158
Abstract
We think that it would be both practical and useful to explore the possibility of inclusion in the UICC/AJCC staging system a designation of both 1 the presence or absence of micrometastases as well as 2 the presence of isolated tumor cells found in general circulation blood bone marrow other distant sites Cases with only micrometastases might in such scheme be identified by the addition of “mi” to the pN and/or pM category eg pN1 mi or pM1 mi 2Admittedly one wishing to utilize such an “ultrastaging” system would be well advised to formally identify the precise pathologic methods of evaluation used to arrive at such a classification It is virtually certain that detection modes more sensitive than conventional light microscopic pathologic methods as for example immunocytochemistry and molecular biology
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