American Joint Committee on Cancer

The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) is an organization best known for defining and popularizing cancer staging standards, officially the AJCC staging system.

The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) was established in 1959 to formulate and publish systems of classification of cancer, including staging and end results reporting, which will be acceptable to and used by the medical profession for selecting the most effective treatment, determining prognosis, and continuing evaluation of cancer control measures.

Membership

The AJCC is composed of five sponsoring organizations and fourteen liaison organizations. Membership is reserved for those organizations whose missions or goals are consistent with or complementary to those of the AJCC. These organizations generally demonstrate involvement or activity in one or more of the following areas: cancer epidemiology, patient care, cancer control, cancer registration, professional education, research, and biostatistics. Organizations that comprise the sponsoring membership category support the AJCC through the provision of substantial financial resources, either direct or in-kind. These organizations include:

American Cancer Society
American College of Surgeons
American Society of Clinical Oncology
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
College of American Pathologists

Objectives

The objectives of the AJCC are to:

1. Facilitate a timely and rigorous, evidence-based process to support a biologically relevant system for classification and outcome prediction of cancer that is compatible with systems of cancer population surveillance.

2. Proactively educate the oncology community through the development and delivery of effective programs and products to guide patient care.

3. Promulgate research and serve as the clearinghouse to support the development of clinically relevant predictive tools, prognostic factors, and other indicators that classify and predict cancer.

4. Foster collaborative relationships with AJCC member organizations and organizations with similar objectives in support of systems to diagnose and treat cancer.

5. Support and be responsive to public and private efforts to improve care and predict outcomes for cancer patients.