{"entity":{"id":"oral-cavity-staging","kind":"term","name":"Lip and oral cavity cancer staging (AJCC chapter 7)","aka":["oral cavity cancer staging","mouth cancer staging"],"tldr":"Mouth cancer is staged by the tumour's size and how deep it has invaded, and by spread to neck lymph nodes, from stage 0 to stage IVC, where it has spread to distant organs.","summary":"AJCC chapter 7 covers the oral cavity and is an 8th edition chapter in the AJCC 2026 table. In the NCI's summary, stage 0 is abnormal cells in the lining; from stage II onward the stage uses both size and the deepest point of invasion (for example, stage II includes tumours of 2 cm or less invading more than 5 mm, and stage III tumours of 2 to 4 cm invading more than 10 mm); stage IVB includes a single lymph node larger than 6 cm; stage IVC is spread beyond the mouth to other parts of the body such as lung, liver or bone. The stage descriptions are those in the National Cancer Institute's PDQ summary, which follows the AJCC tables.","asOf":"2026-11-04","links":[{"label":"National Cancer Institute, Lip and oral cavity cancer treatment (PDQ), patient version: stages","url":"https://www.cancer.gov/types/head-and-neck/patient/adult/lip-mouth-treatment-pdq"},{"label":"American College of Surgeons, AJCC Current Staging System 2026 (which chapters are 8th edition and which Version 9)","url":"https://www.facs.org/media/c5ik5tkr/ajcc-current-staging-system-2026.pdf"}],"tags":[],"related":["tnm-staging","ajcc-stage","extranodal-extension","depth-of-invasion"],"cancers":["oral-cavity-cancer","head-and-neck"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"category":"Clinical"},"route":"/terms/oral-cavity-staging/","neighbours":{"term":[{"id":"ajcc-stage","kind":"term","name":"AJCC stage (TNM staging manual)","route":"/terms/ajcc-stage/"},{"id":"depth-of-invasion","kind":"term","name":"Depth of invasion (DOI)","route":"/terms/depth-of-invasion/"},{"id":"staging-systems","kind":"term","name":"Disease-specific staging and risk systems (FIGO, Ann Arbor, IPI, R-ISS, ELN, IMDC)","route":"/terms/staging-systems/"},{"id":"extranodal-extension","kind":"term","name":"Extranodal extension (ENE)","route":"/terms/extranodal-extension/"},{"id":"tnm-staging","kind":"term","name":"TNM staging","route":"/terms/tnm-staging/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"head-and-neck","kind":"cancer","name":"Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/head-and-neck/"},{"id":"oral-cavity-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Oral cavity cancer (mouth and tongue)","route":"/cancers/oral-cavity-cancer/"}]}}