What My Patients Are Asking: Explain the New Breast Cancer Staging Guidelines

Brian Wojciechowski, M.D., practices medical oncology in Delaware County, Pennsylvania at Riddle, Taylor, and Crozer Hospitals and also serves as Breastcancer.org's medical adviser. A native of South Philadelphia, he trained at Temple University School of Medicine and Lankenau Medical Center. Dr. Wojciechowski is a sought-after speaker on the topics of medical ethics and the biology of cancer. In 2018, the American Joint Committee on Cancer, commonly called the AJCC, updated breast cancer staging guidelines to add other information to how a cancer’s stage is determined. This has made determining the stage of a breast cancer more complex, but also more accurate. Listen to the podcast to hear Dr. Wojciechowski explain: what the T, N, and M parts of the staging system mean how the new characteristics added to the staging system in 2018 — cancer grade, estrogen receptor status, progesterone receptor status, HER2 receptor status, and Oncotype DX Recurrence Score — affect a breast cancer’s stage how a cancer that might have been stage IIIA in the past might now be stage IB