The Ann Arbor staging system was the landmark lymphoma staging classification system for both Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.. The Ann Arbor staging system is widely used for anatomic staging of lymphoma, both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Either of the following means the disease is stage I: 1. The Ann Arbor staging system originally developed for the staging of Hodgkin lymphoma has been extended to non-Hodgkin lymphoid malignancies. It is named after the town of Ann Arbor in the US state of Michigan where the Committee on Hodgkin's Disease Staging Classification met in 1971 to agree on it. Staging. The cancer is found only in 1 area of a single organ outside of the lymph system (IE). Ann Arbor staging further classifies patients with lymphoma into A or B categories. The lymphoma is in only 1 lymph node area or lymphoid organ such as the tonsils (I). 2. The traditional staging for Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma was initially presented at the Ann Arbor Symposium on Staging of Hodgkin lymphoma, April, 1971. For the Ann Arbor System, clinical staging includes all of the non-invasive procedures; pathologic staging is based on findings made as a result of invasive procedures such as laparotomy or … B = with symptoms including unexplained weight loss (10% in 6 months prior to diagnosis, unexplained fever, and drenching night sweats.) ANN ARBOR notations . A = without symptoms. 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.