Table 1.

American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM classification of carcinoma of the esophagus and esophagogastric junction. Used with the permission of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC), Chicago, Illinois. The original source for this material is the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, Seventh Edition (2010) published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC, www.springer.com⁵

Primary tumor (T)
TX	Primary tumor cannot be assessed
T0	No evidence of primary tumor
Tis	High-grade dysplasia
T1	Tumor invades lamina propria, muscularis mucosae, or submucosa
T1a	Tumor invades lamina propria or muscularis mucosae
T1b	Tumor invades submucosa
T2	Tumor invades muscularis propria
T3	Tumor invades adventitia
T4	Tumor invades adjacent structures
T4a	Resectable tumor invading pleura, pericardium, or diaphragm
T4b	Unresectable tumor invading other adjacent structures aorta, vertebral body, trachea, etc
Regional lymph nodes (N)
NX	Regional lymph nodes cannot be assessed
N0	No regional lymph node metastasis
N1	Metastasis in 1–2 regional lymph nodes
N2	Metastasis in 3–6 regional lymph nodes
N3	Metastasis in seven or more regional lymph nodes
Distant metastasis (M)
M0	No distant metastasis
M1	Distant metastasis
Histologic grade (G)
GX	Grade cannot be assessed-stage grouping as G1
G1	Well-differentiated
G2	Moderately differentiated
G3	Poorly differentiated
G4	Undifferentiated-stage grouping as G3 squamous
Squamous cell carcinomaa
Stage	T	N	M	Grade	Tumor locationb
Anatomic stage/prognostic groups
Stage 0	Tis	N0	M0	1, X	Any
Stage 1A	T1	N0	M0	1, X	Any
Stage 1B	T1	N0	M0	2–3	Any
	T2–3	N0	M0	1, X	Lower, X
Stage IIA	T2–3	N0	M0	1, X	Upper, Middle
	T2–3	N0	M0	2, 3	Lower, X
Stage IIB	T2–3	N0	M0	2, 3	Upper, Middle
	T1–2	N1	M0	Any	Any
Stage IIIA	T1–2	N2	M0	Any	Any
	T3	N1	M0	Any	Any
	T4a	N0	M0	Any	Any
Stage IIIB	T3	N2	M0	Any	Any
Stage IIIC	T4a	N1–2	M0	Any	Any
	T4b	Any	M0	Any	Any
	Any	N3	M0	Any	Any
Stage IV	Any	Any	M1	Any	Any
Adenocarcinoma
Stage		T	N	M	Grade
Stage 0		Tis	N0	M0	1, X
Stage 1A	T1	N0	M0	1–2, X
Stage 1B	T1	N0	M0	3
		T2	N0	M0	1–2, X
Stage IIA	T2	N0	M0	3, X
Stage IIB	T3	N0	M0	Any
		T1–2	N1	M0	Any
Stage IIIA	T1–2	N2	M0	Any
		T3	N1	M0	Any
		T4a	N0	M0	Any
Stage IIIB	T3	N2	M0	Any
Stage IIIC	T4a	N1–2	M0	Any
		T4b	Any	M0	Any
		Any	N3	M0	Any
Stage IV	Any	Any	M1	Any

Notes:

^aOr mixed histology including a squamous component or NOS;

^blocation of the primary tumor is defined by the position of the upper (proximal) edge of the tumor in the esophagus.