Comparing prognostic values of the 7th and 8th editions of the American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM staging system for gastric cancer

Our aim was to compare the prognostic value of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 7th and 8th editions staging systems for patients with gastric cancer in China.

A total of 1326 gastric cancer patients diagnosed between 2008 and 2012 were included. The discriminative ability of the AJCC 8th and 7th editions was compared using the Harrell’s concordance index (C-index).

There are two main modifications in the 8th edition. (i) pN3 staging was divided into pN3a and pN3b. The gastric cancer patients with pN3a experienced significantly better overall survival compared with those with pN3b (5-year overall survival: 34.5% vs. 15.6%, P < 0.001) (stratified by pT: pT3: 5-year overall survival: 33.9% vs. 13.2%, P < 0.001; pT4a: 32.8% vs. 16.9%, P = 0.056; pT4b: 17.0% vs. 11.1%, P = 0.048). (ii) Subgroup staging adjustments. The subgroup staging adjustments (T3N3bM0 (IIIB→IIIC), T4aN3aM0 (IIIC→IIIB), T4bN0M0 (IIIB→IIIA), and T4bN2M0 (IIIC→IIIB)) resulted in more gastric cancer patients being accurately staged. Furthermore, the C-index value of the 8th edition tumor node metastasis (TNM) staging system was significantly higher than that of the AJCC 7th TNM staging system to predict the survival of gastric cancer patients (0.701 vs. 0.685, P < 0.001).

The 8th edition of the TNM staging system is superior to the 7th edition staging system for prediction of survival of gastric cancer patients in China.