SEER Inquiry System - Search

Armour thyroid is listed under "Thyroid" in SEER*Rx and in Appendix C Thyroid Coding Guidelines of the 2026 SEER Program Coding and Staging Manual. Code natural thyroid products as hormonal therapy in papillary, follicular, or oncocytic thyroid carcinoma. Thyroid histology must be known as coding depends on histology. Do not code if it is medullary or anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. If histology is unknown, assign Hormone Therapy as code 99.

In papillary, follicular, and oncocytic carcinoma, natural or synthetic thyroid hormone products have a dual role:

1. Suppression of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH): This is cancer directed therapy since the tumor cells of the above mentioned morphologies express TSH receptor. TSH is a trophic hormone that can promote tumor growth.

2. Hormonal replacement therapy to treat post-surgical or post-radiation hypothyroidism. C-cells in medullary carcinoma do not express TSH receptor, thus, TSH suppression would not be indicated. However, replacement hormonal therapy with synthetic or natural thyroid hormones post surgery is given to treat the post-surgical hypothyroidism. In operable thyroid anaplastic carcinoma, the goal of levothyroxine therapy is hormone replacement.

The Thyroid Coding Guidelines are being updated to include oncocytic thyroid cancer in the 2027 release of the SEER Manual.

For cases diagnosed 2007 or later, use the MP/H rules in order. Rule M6 comes before rule M7.

M6 states that bladder tumors with certain histologies are a single primary. It is a single primary regardless of timing if there is any combination of:

• papillary carcinoma [8050]

Rule M7 applies to bladder tumors with histologies other than those listed above. If you have such a case, rule M7 applies to in-situ tumors and to an in situ three years after an invasive.

For cases diagnosed 2007 or later, code the histology as papillary carcinoma, poorly differentiated [8260/33].

The WHO classification lists grade III papillary carcinoma as one of the synonyms for poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

The steps used to arrive at this decision are:

Open the Multiple Primary and Histology Coding Rules Manual. Choose one of the three formats (i.e., flowchart, matrix or text). Go to the Other Sites Histo rules because site specific rules have not been developed for this primary.

Start with the SINGLE TUMOR: INVASIVE ONLY module, rule H8. The rules are intended to be reviewed in consecutive order within a module. Per rule H13 "phenotype" is not a term used to code a more specific histology. Moving to Rule H14 the histology is coded 8260/3 [papillary adenocarcinoma].

For cases diagnosed 2010 and forward, access the Hematopoietic Database at http://seer.cancer.gov/seertools/hemelymph.

Per the Abstractor Notes in the Heme DB, primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) is unusual in that the majority of cases arise in body cavities, such as the pleural, pericardial, and peritoneal cavities. Because there are no ICD-O-3 codes for the pleural space, pericardium, or peritoneal cavity, code the primary site to pleura C384 when the neoplasm arises in the pleural cavity, to pericardium C380 when it occurs in the pericardium, and to peritoneal cavity C482 when it occurs in the peritoneum.

Typically only one body cavity is involved. However, if multiple regions are positive for PEL as in this case, code the primary site to C809 per Rule PH27. Rule PH27 indicates one is to code the to primary site C809 when there is no evidence of lymphoma in lymph nodes AND the physician in the medical record that he/she that the lymphoma in an

SEER*Educate provides training on how to use the Heme Manual and DB. If you are unsure how to arrive at the answer in this SINQ question, refer to SEER*Educate to practice coding hematopoietic and lymphoid neoplasms. Review the step-by-step instructions provided for each case scenario to learn how to use the application and manual to arrive at the answer provided. https://educate.fhcrc.org/LandingPage.aspx.

For tumors diagnosed prior to 2007:

Code histology to 8503/2 [Noninfiltrating intraductal papillary adenocarcinoma]. "Solid" is one of four subtypes of intraductal papillary carcinoma. The other subtypes are cribriform, micropapillary and spindle cell. ICD-O-3 does not provide codes for each intraductal papillary subtype, so code to intraductal papillary carcinoma.

For tumors diagnosed 2007 or later, refer to the MP/H rules. If there are still questions about how this type of tumor should be coded, submit a new question to SINQ and include the difficulties you are encountering in applying the MP/H rules.

For tumors diagnosed prior to 2007:

Code the Histology field to 8570/3 [Adenocarcinoma with squamous metaplasia]. Our pathology consultant agrees that squamous metaplasia is synonymous with squamous differentiation.

For tumors diagnosed 2007 or later, refer to the MP/H rules. If there are still questions about how this type of tumor should be coded, submit a new question to SINQ and include the difficulties you are encountering in applying the MP/H rules.

For cases diagnosed 2010 and forward, access the Hematopoietic Database at http://seer.cancer.gov/seertools/hemelymph.

Code the histology to 9732/3 [multiple myeloma].

Ambiguous terminology is used to accession cases (determine reportability) because it has been used for over 30 years to do so. Any deviation from using ambiguous terminology to determine case reportability would cause the reporting of incidence counts to vary. In this case, there was a reportable, ambiguous terminology diagnosis of multiple myeloma on the pathology report.

The instruction "Do not code histology based on ambiguous terminology" is intended to be used when there is a reportable and reportable stated in the diagnosis. Ambiguous terminology cannot be used to report the more specific diagnosis in cases of Heme & Lymphoid neoplasms. For example, if the pathology report final diagnosis was "Myeloproliferative neoplasm, probably Polycythemia Vera" the histology would be coded as myeloproliferative neoplasm, unclassifiable [9975/3]. The ambiguous terminology indicates that the genetic testing, immunophenotyping, etc., probably are not complete or are not diagnostic of the more specific disease. Wait to code the histology until there is a definite diagnosis given.

SEER*Educate provides training on how to use the Heme Manual and DB. If you are unsure how to arrive at the answer in this SINQ question, refer to SEER*Educate to practice coding hematopoietic and lymphoid neoplasms. Review the step-by-step instructions provided for each case scenario to learn how to use the application and manual to arrive at the answer provided. https://educate.fhcrc.org/LandingPage.aspx.