A Proposal on the Clinical Staging of Malignant Trophoblastic Neoplasms Based on the Study of Process of Development of the Disease

Abstract

An agreement on the criteria of diagnosis of malignant trophoblastic neoplasms has been reached in recent years. Outstanding achievements have been made in the treatment causing a dramatic improvement in prognosis. However, there still lacks a satisfactory clinical staging which may be used to designate the extent and development of this group of tumors. Without a universally accepted method of staging, the clinical materials from various sources cannot be compared, the prognosis of patients cannot be correctly predicted, and the therapeutic results of different methods of treatment cannot be accurately evaluated. Therefore, in 1962, based on the careful analysis of a large series of cases, a preliminary proposal of clinical staging of malignant trophoblastic tumors was reported (1). Through years of trial in patients, it was found that this staging method is very practical for clinical use and correlates well with the prognosis of the disease (2). Recently, it has been re-evaluated on the basis of an intensive study of the process of development of the diseases in 870 patients. The results are reported below.