The History of the TNM System The TNM System for the c1assification of malignant tumours was developed by Pierre Denoix (France) between the years 1943 1 and 1952. In 1950 the UICC appointed a Committee on Thmour Nomen- clature and Statistics and adopted, as a basis for its work on clini- cal stage c1assification, the general definitions of local extension of malignant tumours suggested by the World Health Organiza- tion (WHO) Sub-Committee on The Registration of Cases of 2 Cancer as weIl as their Statistical Presentation. In 1953 the Committee held a joint meeting with the Interna- tional Commission on Stage-Grouping in Cancer and Presenta- tion of the Results of Treatment of Cancer appointed by the International Congress of Radiology. Agreement was reached on a general technique for c1assification by anatomical extent of dis- ease, using the TNM system. In 1954 the Research Comrnission of the UICC set up a spe- cial Committee on Clinical Stage Classification and Applied Statis- ticsto "pursue studies in this field and to extend the general tech- nique of c1assification to cancer at aIl sites".
In 1958 the Committee published its first recommendations for the clinical stage classification of cancers of the breast and 1 Denoix, P.F.: BuH. Inst. Nat. Hyg. (Paris) 1: 1-69 (1944) and 5: 52-82 (1944).