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Staging of Thyroid Cancer

  • Chapter
Thyroid Cancer

Abstract

In general, the “stage” of a cancer refers to a phase in the course of the tumor when it has reached some defined level of extent. The extent of the tumor is a measure of its size and whether it has spread elsewhere. As thyroid cancers grow, they are first confined to the thyroid gland, then may extend in variable degrees to the subcutaneous tissues and lymph nodes of the neck, and finally, potentially to distant sites of the body. Staging a tumor allows a more accurate description of the extent of disease in a given patient in objective and standardized terms. Staging permits communication between patients and physicians about their prognosis. This is facilitated by the fact that clinical investigators analyze and report their experience with various therapeutic approaches and express their results based on the staging of their patient population. Then therapeutic approaches may be selected for the patient based on these published studies on treatment results in comparably staged patients. A standardized staging vocabulary also allows more precise communication among physicians about the degree of disease present.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC

    Leonard Wartofsky MD, MACP (Chairman, Professor of Medicine)

  2. Anatomy, Physiology and Genetics, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD

    Leonard Wartofsky MD, MACP (Chairman, Professor of Medicine)

  3. Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC

    Leonard Wartofsky MD, MACP (Chairman, Professor of Medicine)

Authors
  1. Leonard Wartofsky MD, MACP
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC

    Leonard Wartofsky MD, MPH, MACP  & Douglas Van Nostrand MD, FACP, FACNP  & 

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© 2006 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ

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Wartofsky, L. (2006). Staging of Thyroid Cancer. In: Wartofsky, L., Van Nostrand, D. (eds) Thyroid Cancer. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-995-0_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-995-0_9

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-462-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-995-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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