A comparison of AJC and JJC proposals on TNM classification of maxillary sinus carcinoma

The proposal of the JJC, established in 1977 in an effort to establish a TNM classification of maxillary sinus carcinoma, proved superior to the American Joint Committee for Cancer Staging and End Results Recording (AJC) proposal in terms of reproducibility, well-balanced distribution of cases of T, and prognostication using TNM as the indices, after a nationwide analysis of 474 N0M0 Patients who were among the 541 patients first treated between 1970 and 1973 in 11 leading Japanese medical institutions. The number of patients, with their 5-year cumulative survival rates in parentheses, classified by T1, T2, T3, and T4 were as follows: AJC proposal - 0 (-), 21 (68%), 283 (44%), and 170 (31%); JJC proposal - 6 (83%), 148 (51%), 237 (40%), and 83 (22%). The 283 cases for T3 under the AJC classification are to be redistributed over three JJC T units of T2, T3, and T4, with the respective numbers of cases and 5-year cumulative survival rates of 133 (50%), 128 (41%), and 22 (26%). In a similar manner, the 170 T4 cases under the AJC classification are reclassified into 109 (37%) for T3 and 61 (20%) for T4 under the JJC proposal. The JJC proposal enables closer prognostication than the AJC.