Colon cancer staging

The systems for staging colorectal cancers depend on the extent of local invasion, the degree of lymph node involvement and whether there is distant metastasis.

An exception to this principle would be after a colonoscopic polypectomy of a malignant pedunculated polyp with minimal invasion.

Adjunct staging of metastasis include abdominal ultrasound, MRI, CT, PET scanning, and other imaging studies.

Possibly, the overall Joint Committee stage is a shorter format of the TNM stage, and is usually quoted as a number I, II, III, IV derived from the TNM value grouped by prognosis; a higher number indicates a more advanced cancer and likely a worse outcome.

[11] Stage D was added by Turnbull to denote the presence of liver and other distant metastases[12]