[in Japanese]

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Until recently, there has not been a sufficient number of the salivary gland cancer to permit the development of a clinically useful TNM classification system. A comprehensive retrospective study of 354 patients with parotid gland cancer from 46 institutions in Japan was carried out at the request of the Japanese Committee on TNM Classification (JJC), and we propose JJC T-categories of parotid gland cancer. The characteristic of this proposal involves in T-categories determined according to tumor size. Fixed tumors or tumors with facial nerve involvement were classified as T4 regardless of tumor size. In 1983, AJCC proposal of TNM classification system of salivary gland cancers was tentatively approved in AJCC/UICC joint meeting in the year before last. In comparison with AJCC classification, our proposal seemed to be better in terms of simplicity and balanced distribution in T-categories of parotid gland cancers.

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