Abstract
Reliable staging system should facilitate prognosis assessment, decision on treatments, and evaluation of their outcomes. A good staging system must meet three basic characteristics: validity, reliability, and practicality.
The purpose of such system is to offer classification of the extent and progress of gynaecological cancer that will allow the comparison of different treatment methods and the choice of optimal treatment for individual patients. The previously developed staging of gynaecological cancers has become outdated because it has not considered results of current medical research that allow refinement of prognostic subgroupings.
Changes based on new findings were proposed for staging of uterine malignancies by the FIGO (The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) Committee on Gynecologic Oncology and approved by the FIGO Executive Board in 2008, and were published in 2009. Stage 0 was deleted, since it did not represent any stage of invasive tumor.
Four fundamental changes were made in the staging system of endometrium carcinoma. The revised staging system for endometrium carcinoma divides patients to groups with similar prognosis; carcinosarcoma is staged identically.
The novel system will facilitate exchange of relevant information between diverse oncological centers and thereby promote knowledge dissemination and stimulate research around the globe. A different staging system was proposed for adenosarcomas, leiomyosarcomas and endometrial stromal sarcomas.
It is based on features used for the sarcomas of other soft tissues. The purpose of the text is to review current knowledge in this area.