Physicians may utilize incomplete information to assign cancer staging for treatment purposes or so a patient can have a better understanding of their prognosis; however, cancer registrars should not assign stage grouping to cases where incomplete or uncertain staging components exist.  The following are highlights of best practices for staging when you encounter incomplete or uncertain staging items. Best Practices for Incomplete Information and Cancer Staging:…

The Breast and Colon changes outlined below take effect with cases diagnosed 1/1/2018 and forward.  These changes were published in April, 2018 by SEER at https://seer.cancer.gov/tools/staging* *The order of the data collected has changed, and some previously collected data fields are no longer collected for 01/01/2018 and forward diagnoses.  There are a number of new data fields being collected for breast primaries. * There has been…

The 2018 Solid Tumor Manual (previously referred to as the Multiple Primary & Histology Rules) is now available in draft format at https://seer.cancer.gov/tools/solidtumor.  When the manual has been approved in final format, it will be marked as final on the Seer website. A few things to highlight regarding changes in the Solid Tumor Manual (Multiple Primary & Histology Rules): Do not use a physician’s statement when…

Now that we have everyone on board with coding pTis in the clinical T category for AJCC 7th edition, 2018 comes in like a lion and brings along the AJCC 8th edition manual.   Requirements are changing, rules are changing, coding is changing.  We as CTR’s are expected to adapt to the new rules and implement these changes.   The “In Situ Rule” is one big…