The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)

The American Joint Committee on Cancer has guided the development, implementation, and use of the TNM (Tumor-Node-Mestatasis) cancer prognostic system in America since 1959. The clinically oriented TNM staging scheme was developed by the AJCC in cooperation with the TNM committee of the International Union against Cancer (UICC) and is used worldwide for prognostic staging of cancers.

The AJCC regularly updates its staging standards to incorporate advances in prognostic technology. Current work concerns development of prognostic indices based on molecular markers that access the rate at which tumors grow. AJCC is committed to improving the predictive accuracy of the TNM system and making the system accessible and useful to the practicing clinician.

The Commission on Cancer (CoC) approvals program requires AJCC staging for all sites with defined staging schemes.