Collaborative Staging and Its Impact on Cancer Registry Data: Information for Data Users on Analysis and Interpretation of Registry Data

Collaborative Stage (CS) is a data collection system that uses a single set of data elements based on extent of disease and clinically relevant factors. It is designed to meet the needs of multiple staging systems and eliminate duplicate data collection by cancer registrars reporting to facility-based and central population-based registries. The CS system was updated in 2010 (CSv2) in conjunction with the release of the 7^th edition of the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, which presents the Tumor (T), Node (N), Metastasis (M), and stage descriptions along with a section on prognostic factors for which collection is recommended. Those recommendations are the basis for the development and collection of the site-specific factors (SSFs) for CS.

The National Cancer Institute is pleased to announce the publication of Collaborative Staging and Its Impact on Cancer Registry Data: Information for Data Users on Analysis and Interpretation of Registry Data in Cancer (Volume 120, Issue Supplement S23: December 1, 2014). The special issue describes the information collected under CSv1 and CSv2 within the SEER Program for eight common cancer sites. Each report discusses how changes between the AJCC 6^th and 7^th editions affect stage distributions and trends, and then quantifies the potential impacts on outcomes and incidence trends stratified by stage. SSFs are described in detail, with particular emphasis on the factors newly collected in 2010. Analyses are performed to evaluate the completeness and quality of each SSF. The special issue was made possible by NCI's Surveillance Research Program, experts from SEER registries, and other leaders from the surveillance community.

Technical Appendix

A technical appendix to these articles focuses on the CS data fields and how to analyze them in SEER*Stat, a software package designed to analyze the NCI’s SEER Program data.  It gives pointers and discusses pitfalls that an analyst using the CS data items especially the CS site-specific factors (SSFs) should understand before attempting to analyze this complex data. 

Ries LAG, Edwards BK. Data Nuances–Tips in analyzing Collaborative Stage (CS) data with a focus on CS version 2 for data 2010+ (November 2012 and 2013 SEER data submissions). (PDF) Surveillance Research Program, NCI, Technical Report #2015-01. Available from: https://surveillance.cancer.gov/reports/.