The Ann Arbor staging system is widely used for anatomic staging of lymphoma, both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas. The definition of these stages can be found in the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual (7th edition) or Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) staging manual. Information from extent of disease fields is collapsed into the staging categories. The detailed codes presented on this page can be found in the following resources:

The variable used in SEER*Stat has the following formats:

1 = Stage I
2 = Stage II
3 = Stage III
4 = Stage IV
8 = Not applicable
9 = Unknown

Selection Criteria for Staging

  • If Site recode ICD-O-3/WHO 2008 is not Lymphoma, stage is coded to 8.
  • If Year of diagnosis is prior to 1983 or after 2015, stage is blank.  
  • If Histologic Type ICD-O-3 is 9700-9701 (Sezary and mycosis fungoides), stage is coded to 8.
  • If Primary Site code is 441, 690, 695, 696, stage is coded to code 8. Reason: excludes skin of eyelid and eye because AJCC 7th ed does not include information on Ann Arbor for lymphoma ocular adnexa.

Staging Criteria

Based on EOD 10 - extent (1988-2003); CS extension (2004-2015); EOD 4 - extent (1983-1987)

Stage I
1983-1987: EOD 4 - extent (1983-1987) = 1
1988-2003: EOD 10 - extent (1988-2003) = 10-11
2004-2015: CS extension (2004-2015) = 100-120
Stage II
1983-1987: EOD 4 - extent (1983-1987) = 2
1988-2003: EOD 10 - extent (1988-2003) = 20-21
2004-2015: CS extension (2004-2015) = 200-230
Stage III
1983-1987: EOD 4 - extent (1983-1987) = 3
1988-2003: EOD 10 - extent (1988-2003) = 30-33
2004-2015: CS extension (2004-2015) = 300-330
Stage IV
1983-1987: EOD 4 - extent (1983-1987) = 8
1988-2003: EOD 10 - extent (1988-2003) = 80
2004-2015: CS extension (2004-2015) = 800
Unknown
All other values