TNM staging of colorectal cancer should be reconsidered by T stage weighting

Figure 1 Relationship between survival of colorectal cancer patients and stages of the American Joint Committee on Cancer 7^th edition tumor node metastasis staging system. A: The 5-year observed survival rate of colorectal cancer patients according to 25 combinations of T and N stages of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 7^th edition tumor node metastasis (TNM) staging system; B: The median 5-year observed survival rate of colorectal cancer patients for overall stages (I, II, IIIa, IIIb and IIIc) according to the 7^th edition of the AJCC TNM staging system. Colon cancer is represented by the solid black grids. Rectal cancer is represented by the white grids (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results open data).