Reportability--Brain: Is angiocentric glioma, WHO grade 1 of the right frontal lobe reportable? If so, how is histology to be coded?
Angiocentric glioma is reportable. The best histology code currently available is 9380/1 [glioma, NOS; uncertain behavior].
According to the WHO Classification of Central Nervous System Tumours, Angiocentric glioma has a behavior of /1. WHO defines it as an epilepsy-associated stable or slowly growing cerebral tumour primarily affecting children and young adults; histopathologicaly characterized by an angiocentric pattern of growth, monomorphous bipolar cells and features of ependymal differentiation.
Histology--Breast: What is the histology code for a 2007 diagnosis of basal-type breast carcinoma?
Code basal-type breast carcinoma to 8500/3 [Infiltrating duct carcinoma, NOS].
Basal-type breast carcinoma is a subtype of infiltrating duct carcinoma thought to have a poorer prognosis. There is no specific ICD-O-3 code for basal-type breast carcinoma.
MPH Rules/Behavior--Breast: Would a positive right axillary node following DCIS of the right breast indicate the presence of a new primary? See Discussion.
How would you abstract the information from 2007? A patient with a strong family history of breast cancer had bilateral simple mastectomies in 2000, after a suspicious mammogram. Results showed DCIS in the rt breast; no malignancy in the left breast. Now in 2007, the patient has a right axillary lymph node removed - positive for carcinoma of breast origin. Comment says, "recurrent breast carcinoma in rt axillary node from patient's known history of DCIS." Is this a new primary? Is this a diagnosis date in 2007? Is the site C509 and laterality right side?
For cases diagnosed 2007 or later:
A metastasis was diagnosed in 2007. The 2007 MP/H rules do not apply to metastases.
Change the behavior code of the 2000 diagnosis. The breast cancer diagnosed in 2000 must have been invasive based on the metastasis in 2007.
Ambiguous terminology: Is the phrase "malignancy is highly considered" reportable given that the phrase "considered to be malignant" is reportable per SINQ 20061094?
"Malignancy is highly considered" is not a reportable ambiguous term.
Diagnoses qualified by the phrase "considered to be malignant" are reportable because this phrase is interpreted as "This diagnosis is malignant."
Reportability/Date of diagnosis--Liver: Does the final diagnosis of a scan have higher priority than the findings in the discussion in the body of the report? See Discussion.
A patient with liver cancer becomes transplant eligible when the tumor is 2 cm in size. Frequently, liver tumors will be watched (no biopsy) for months until they meet the 2 cm size criteria. In the meantime, multiple scans will describe the tumor using variations of ambiguous terms that drift in and out of reportablility. One day the tumor is labeled "presumed hepatocellular carcinoma." Weeks later it is back to "worrisome for hepatoma." A single scan will use different terms in different sections of the report.
Example case: Abdominal CT reveals a 1 cm liver lesion. Per the discussion portion of the scan, the lesion is consistent with hepatocellular carcinoma. Per final diagnosis: 1 cm liver lesion, possibly hepatocellular carcinoma. Is this report diagnostic of cancer? Would the date of this report be the date of diagnosis? (Patient did receive a liver transplant for hepatocellular carcinoma months later.)
When a reportable ambiguous term is used in one part of a report or the medical record and a non-reportable ambiguous term is used in another part of the report or the medical record, accept the reportable term and accession the case.
The example above is reportable. "Consistent with" is a reportable ambiguous term. Accept "consistent with" over the non-reportable term "possibly."
The date of this report would be the date of diagnosis if this is the earliest report using reportable terminology.
MP/H Rules--Corpus uteri: How is histology coded for an endometrial tumor described as an "endometrioid adenocarcinoma with prominent squamous metaplasia"?
For cases diagnosed 2007 or later:
Endometrioid adenocarcinoma with squamous metaplasia is coded 8570 [Adenocarcinoma with squamous metaplasia]. This falls under the Histology Coding Rules for Other Sites, rule H17. The code for Endometroid adenocarcinoma is 8380. The code for Adenocarcinoma with squamous metaplasia is 8570. The histology with the numerically higher ICD-O-3 code is Adenocarcinoma with squamous metaplasia -- 8570.
Surgery of Primary Site--Brain and CNS: How is this field to be coded when a patient undergoes stereotactic biopsy of a brain tumor? Path specimen consists of four fragments of tissue measuring .7, .6 and .3 cm.
Assign code 20 [Local excision (biopsy) of lesion or mass. Specimen sent to pathology from surgical event 20].
Histology--Head & Neck: How do you code histology for a myofibroblastic sarcoma of the soft tissue of the head and neck?
Assign code 8825/3 [Myofibroblastoma, malignant]. According to the WHO Classification of Soft Tissue Tumors, "Low grade myofibroblastic sarcoma represents a distinct atypical myofibroblastic tumor often with fibromatosis-like features and predilection for the head and neck." Also called myofibrosarcoma.
Reason no surgery of primary site/First course treatment: If the Reason no Surgery of Primary Site field is coded as 7 (refused), must the other treatment options (radiation, chemo, hormone) also be coded as 7? See Discussion.
Coding instruction #5 in the SEER manual states: "Assign code 7 (refused) if the patient refused recommended surgery or made a blanket statement that he/she refused all treatment."
Refused [code 7] means this modality was specifically recommended by the physician and the patient refused. If two treatment alternatives were offered and surgery was refused, code Reason no surgery of primary site 1 [Surgery of the primary site was not performed because it was not part of the planned first-course treatment].
Refusal of surgery does not necessarily mean that all treatment was refused. Coding Surgery of Primary Site as "refused" does not affect the coding of Radiation, Chemotherapy, Hormone Therapy, etc.
CS Extension--Brain and CNS: How is this field coded for a malignant tumor presenting as a confluent lesion over right parietal, posterior frontal and thalamic regions?
This answer was provided in the context of CSv1 coding guidelines. The response may not be used after your registry database has been converted to CSv2.
Assign CS extension code 40 [Tumor crosses the midline; Tumor involves contralateral hemisphere; Tumor involves corpus callosum (including splenium)]
The thalamus is located between the corpus callosum and the cerebellum and brain stem. A supratentorial tumor extending to the thalamus involves the corpus callosum (extension code 40) but has not yet reached the cerebellum or brain stem. Code 40 applies, but code 50 or any higher code is not applicable in this case.
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