Melanoma Staging Vital to Treatment
Determining cancer's "stage" after diagnosis is crucial in helping doctors determine the best treatment and helping patients understand the extent of their disease. "Characteristics of melanoma, such as tumor thickness and volume and ulceration, can help accurately predict patient survival and disease recurrence," says biostatistitian Seng-jaw Soong, Ph.D., of UAB's Comprehensive Cancer Center. Soong led a committee of the American Joint Committee on Cancer to revise the staging system for melanoma. "The system previously used literature review and data from individual institutions. We used cases from UAB's 25-year database and that of 13 other institutions for an in-depth statistical analysis of 17,600 patients." His team confirmed some of the old guidelines and created several new criteria.
Contact Hank Black, Media Relations, 205-934-8938 or [email protected].
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