Re: Colon Cancer Survival Rates With the New American Joint Committee on Cancer Sixth Edition Staging

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Abstract
Stages II and III of the newly revised tumor-node-metastasis staging system for colon cancer (American Joint Committee on Cancer [AJCC] Staging Manual sixth edition) differ from those in the fifth edition ( 1 ) . In the sixth edition, stage II is subdivided into IIa (T3N0) and IIb (T4N0) and stage III is subdivided into IIIa (T1–2N1M0), IIIb (T3–4N1M0), and IIIc (anyTN2M0). This stratified grouping was motivated by the large difference in survival between stage II and III patients noted in the analysis of the National Cancer Data Base registry by Greene et al. ( 2 ) and recognition that having a T4 tumor could have a greater impact on prognosis than regional lymph node involvement ( 3 ) .