The national cancer data base report on recent hospital cancer program progress toward complete American joint committee on cancer/TNM staging

BACKGROUND American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging procedures were first published in 1977. Since 1991 the Commission on Cancer (COC) has required AJCC staging of all nonpediatric cancers. The National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) encouraged recording of AJCC staging through analyses of selected aspects of staging completeness. We reviewed the trend toward the adoption of routine AJCC staging by hospitals for the 5‐year period 1990‐1994. METHODS NCDB reports for nearly 2 million stageable cancers diagnosed from 1990 through 1994 were examined with emphasis on the hospital cancer program environment. Staging was complete if the hospital submitted stage codes for ≥90% of stageable cases or absent if stage codes were submitted for