The proposed Japanese TNM classification of primary liver carcinoma in infants and children.

The TNM classifications of neuroblastoma, nephroblastoma and soft tissue sarcoma were adopted at the International Conference for TNM Classification (UICC) held in May 1980. There is no TNM system under contemplation, however, for primary liver carcinoma in childhood. Accordingly, we have formulated the proposed Japanese TNM system for this carcinoma in children and examined its validity in 136 cases of hepatoblastoma seen in the listed 14 institutions. The basic policy of the Committee on the Japanese TNM Classification is not to include the resectability of the tumor and regional lymph nodes or any other status of the disease resulting from therapeutic intervention as a component of the pTNM system. This is a feature which makes our proposed system widely divergent from the accepted classification scheme for the three types of tumor cited above.