TNM-Atlas

Book excerpt: Confronted with a myriad ofT's, N's and M's in the VICC TNM booklet, classifying a malignancy may seem to many cancer clini cians a tedious, dull and pedantic task. But at a closer look at the TNM Atlas all of a sudden lifeless categories become vivid im ages, challenging the clinician's know-how and investigational skills. Brigit van der Werf-Messing, M.D. Professor of Radiology Past Chairman of the International TNM-Committee of the VICC Rotterdam, July 1982 Preface In 1938 the League of Nations Health Organization published an Atlas Illustrating the Division of Cancer of the Uterine Cervix into Four Stages (J. Heyman, ed., Stockholm). Since this work appeared, the idea of visual representation of the anatomical ex tent of malignant tumours at the different stages of their develop ment has been repeatedly discussed. At its meeting in Copenhagen in July 1954, the DICC adopted as part of its programme "the realization of a clinical atlas". How ever, the time to do the planned book of illustrations was not ripe until the national committees and international organizations had officially recognized the 28 classifications of malignant tu mours at various sites as presented in the third edition of the TNM Booklet edited by M. Harmer (TNM Classification of Malig nant Tumours, 1978). This was all the more important since publi cation of the Booklet was followed in 1980 by publication of a Brochure of Checklists, edited by A.H.