After more than 4 years of work following the official launch of the AJCC (American Joint Commission for Cancer) cancer staging manual update program in April 2013, the 8th edition of the AJCC staging manual was officially declared effective for implementation on January 1, 2018.
The latest version of the AJCC staging of breast cancer has a major update point, namely the inclusion of a number of biomolecular markers that can predict the prognosis of cancer patients, including estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), histologic grading, and polygenic detection of recurrence risk score, based on anatomic (T, N, M) staging. And the concept of prognostic staging was introduced, which became a major revolution in the history of cancer staging, allowing more breast cancer patients to benefit from individualized precision medicine.
The following table shows the 8th edition of the AJCC Breast Cancer Anatomic Staging
| Anatomical staging (AJCC) | |
| Stage 0 | Tis N0 M0 |
|
IA period |
T1 N0 M0 |
|
IB period |
T0 N1mi M0 |
|
T1 N1mi M0 |
|
|
Phase IIA |
T0 N1 M0 |
|
T1 N1 M0 |
|
|
T2 N0 M0 |
|
|
Phase IIB |
T2 N1 M0 |
|
T3 N0 M0 |
|
|
IIIA period |
T0 N2 M0 |
|
T1 N2 M0 |
|
|
T2 N2 M0 |
|
|
T3 N1 M0 |
|
|
T3 N2 M0 |
|
|
IIIB period |
T4 N0 M0 |
|
T4 N1 M0 |
|
|
T4 N2 M0 |
|
|
IIIC period |
Any T N3 M0 |
|
Phase IV |
Any T Any N M1 |