Date: September 2013
Definition:
Any malignant tumour positively diagnosed with histological confirmation and characterised by the uncontrolled growth of malignant cells and invasion of tissue.
The term malignant tumour includes leukaemia, sarcoma and lymphoma except cutaneous lymphoma (lymphoma confined to the skin).
For the above definition, the following are not covered:
- All cancers which are histologically classified as any of the following:
- pre-malignant;
- non-invasive;
- cancer in situ;
- having borderline malignancy; or
- having low malignant potential.
- All tumours of the prostate unless histologically classified as having a Gleason score greater than 6 or having progressed to at least clinical TNM classification T2N0M0.
- Any skin cancer (including cutaneous lymphoma) other than:
- malignant melanoma that has been histologically classified as having caused invasion beyond the epidermis (outer layer of the skin; or
- basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma that has invaded and spread to lymph nodes or metastasised to distant organs.
Updated - September 2013