The clinical anatomic staging of oropharyngeal cancers involves both clinical assessment and imaging techniques.

However, clinical staging and pathologic staging should complement each other.

Pathologic staging is more accurate than clinical staging, but clinical staging is the first and sometimes the only staging type.

Biologic and genetic characteristics have been identified, which, when added to classic clinical staging, has allowed patient assignment to risk groups for planning treatment intensity.

The results of initial clinical staging of MCC vary widely in the literature, based on retrospective case series reported over decades.

Gleason DF: Histologic grading and clinical staging of prostatic carcinoma.

This type of staging combines the results of both the clinical staging (physical exam, imaging test) with the results from the surgery.

Delay in radiation delivery completion is associated with poorer progression-free survival when clinical staging is used.

Staging systems are all clinical staging and are based on the best possible estimate of the extent of disease before treatment.

The clinical staging of carcinoma of the bladder is determined by the depth of invasion of the bladder wall by the tumor.