Radiation Therapy--Prostate: Is the regional treatment modality XRT best coded to 50 (brachytherapy, NOS), 53 (LDR) or 54 (HDR) when the documentation indicates only "I-125 seeds" to the prostate?
Surgery of Primary Site--Breast: How is this field coded when a mastectomy and a sentinel lymph node excision, that yields only one lymph node, are performed? See Discussion.
Surgery of Primary Site/Scope Regional LN Surgery--Breast: How should these fields be coded when a sentinel lymph node dissection removes one-to-three axillary lymph nodes and a total/simple mastectomy is done?
Surgery of Primary Site--Lung: How is surgery coded when a patient undergoes a mediastinoscopy with mediastinal lymph node sampling and then a later upper lobectomy? See discussion.
Type of Multiple Tumors--Colon: How is this field coded for a case in which the patient is found to have two in situ polyps and an adenocarcinoma arising in a polyp all in the same segment of the colon? See Discussion.
Surgery of Primary Site--Bladder: Should a TURB be coded to 27 [Excisional biopsy; SEER Note: Code TURB as 27] when there is obvious extravesicular extension demonstrated because the 2004 SEER Manual states "Do not code an excisional biopsy when there is macroscopic residual disease"?
Surgery of Primary Site--Lymphoma/Soft Tissue: How is this field coded for an excision of a neck mass that found lymphoma in soft tissue (C49.0)? See Discussion.
Surgery of Primary Site--Brain and CNS: Is "debulking" of a primary brain tumor coded to 21 [subtotal resection of tumor] or 30 [gross resection of tumor]?
First course treatment--Leukemia: How should an allogeneic stem cell transplant for acute myeloid leukemia be coded in the Hematologic Transplant and Endocrine Procedures field? See Discussion.
Surgery of Primary Site - - Esophagus/Stomach/Colon: Is an endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) for an esophagus, stomach or colon malignancy coded to 20 [local tumor excision, NOS] or to a more specific code such as 22 [local tumor excision combined with electrocautery]?