MCR MINI-UPDATE JUNE 2014
Fellow Registrars,
June 1 marked the 27th Annual National Cancer Survivors Day that brings
cancer survivors together to show that there is life after receiving a
diagnosis of cancer. Hopefully there were celebratory activities in your
area.
MCR celebrates registrars who are cancer survivors and extends hope to
those currently in the battle.
Due Dates
Large hospitals (>500 cases/yr) are to report November 2013 cases by June 15, 2014.
Education
NAACCR Webinars – Get 3 CEUs by viewing each recorded webinar. Request access now!
Check out our Education and Training page to find out how you can receive access to the recorded
NAACCR Webinars.
June 5, 2014 – Collecting Cancer Data: Liver
We have restored all links to the NAACCR webinar recordings. We apologize for any inconvenience during the time
that they were unavailable.
Live Meetings - Visit our Education and Training page to listen to previous Live Meetings. They are
available to listen to for one year after they are presented.
June 11, 2014 – What’s New in CSv2.05
Presented by Nancy Rold
To register for any of our educational opportunities, call 1-866-240-8809 or contact Shari Ackerman at
ackermans@health.missouri.edu.
MCR NEWS
Conversion to NAACCR v14 and CS v2.05
Reminders about our plans were published last month. Here are updates: Angela Martin has us on the
list to get Abstract Plus converted so that we can distribute it to users when needed.
MCR Abstract Code Manual
FORDS promises to have their 2014 revisions expedited so that we can publish our 2014 MCR Manual.
Abstracting Tips
Hormone Therapy Maintenance: When initial diagnosis and all first course therapy is initiated
elsewhere and your facility only renews prescriptions to facilitate first course oral hormone therapy
(synthroid, tamoxifen, etc.) started elsewhere, class of case would be 31 and not reportable to MCR.
Contractor Quality: Remember that your facility is just as responsible for the work of contracted
abstractors as it is for work done in-house. Please assure that the quality of all abstracts submitted to us
meets high standards for accuracy and completeness.
Notes from NCRA Nashville
I was fortunate to attend the NCRA meeting in Nashville (40th anniversary!) last month and wanted to
share with you just a few notes of interest. I saw several MO registrars there. Among us, we probably
covered all the sessions. If you were there and have different take-home messages that are important
to share, please pass them along for inclusion in one of my future monthly updates.
CAP protocols are under review regarding molecular reporting; interested registrars might monitor the
CAP website for solicitation of public comment.
Informatics “Computers are incredibly fast and accurate, but stupid. People are slow and inaccurate,
but brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination!” Quote attributed to Einstein. The
Informatics Committee will post an Informatics Glossary to NCRA website soon. Give Michele Webb,
michele@michelewebb.com, any suggestions for projects for the committee.
MPH SEER is working on turning the rules into a database format similar to the hematopoietic database.
Keynote speaker Otis Brawley, the Medical Director for the American Cancer Society was thoughtprovoking. Here is a 33 min video of a similar speech he gave
http://www.fedprac.com/fileadmin/qhi_archive/microsites/AVAHO/Brawley.html#sthash.86KB7P9s.nxi
1GG2q.dpbs
NCRA Education Foundation is working to recruit new registrars via AHIMA, nursing and clinical trials
conventions, and websites of state high school health education associations. They are also developing
a tool for managers on how to consider and implement a remote work option for their facility registrars.
What is a Cancer Registrar This 3-minute video produced by Champs Oncology might serve as
inspiration to you or could be used for recruitment of others to our field.
Dr. Williamson said that MDs trust local data most, so use that to sell them on the value of your
registry!
Transition to direct assigned stage (TNM, SEER Summary) was, of course, a big topic over several
sessions. The staging education survey that was done showed great need for education of both new and
seasoned, hospital and central registrars. CDC is funding AJCC to produce free webinars which will be
posted on the AJCC website in the future. SEER is working on a new edition of SEER Summary Stage for
2016. In the meantime there is much to learn or re-learn about these staging systems. I attended the
Saturday CDC Train the Trainer sessions on behalf of Angela Martin (MCR Education Coordinator). Louanne
Currence (MoSTRA Education Coordinator) participated as well. We will have access to the CDC revised
slides and speaker notes that we can borrow from as we design any future MCR and/or MoSTRA training
sessions on these topics. Stay tuned as Angela, Louanne and their teams put their heads together to
figure out how they might best lead us through any learning involved with this transition.
Health System Registries There were at least 3 sessions on how registries are coping with management
challenges within larger health systems. Those interested in learning more can contact me for copies of
the handouts.
Social media Chat rooms are popular on websites. Multi-media education resources appeal to many
people. Do you have a presence on the NCRA Facebook page? Might you want to form/join a LinkedIn
group? Did you know that many cancer groups have Twitter feeds (NAACCR, NCRA, NCI, and CDC)?
There are lots of options as we all consider our evolving social media involvement individually, at work
and in our professional associations.
NATIONAL NEWS
From the Standard Setters
FORDS Revision Project – now is the time to give them your input!!
Do you have a really good idea for adding or changing FORDS data items? FORDS is a manual that
contains all of the data items with rules and coding options for cancer registrars to collect data in their
hospital registry. These data are then submitted to the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB). The data
available in the NCDB come from FORDS, Collaborative Stage, and AJCC Cancer Staging Manual. The
Commission on Cancer (CoC) is seeking input from registrars, data users, physicians, and others to
modernize our FORDS manual. This project was kicked off in April 2014.
The input will be gathered through an electronic survey, which will be open through September 2014.
You will be asked to submit one FORDS Revision Survey for each suggestion. The “survey” can be
submitted multiple times per user. Questions within the survey vary based on whether you want to add,
change or remove a data item. Have questions? Please contact fordsmanualrevision@facs.org.
AJCC Staging Moments
Looking for tips to improve your abstracting? Check out the 12 new staging moments uploaded to AJCC
Staging Moments YouTube channel 5/8/14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVsLWIa9Ol0&index=16&list=PLACB6E23F9D1AF254: Prostate SSF
12,13; Kidney SSF2,3,4; Corpus Uteri CS Mets at Dx;
Colon SSF6; Breast SSF6 (3 videos); Bladder Extension & Evaluation; 998 Test Not Done vs. 999
Unknown. Those that I underlined discuss Missouri-required fields.
Registry to Research – Registry Data in the News
After seeing a well-designed presentation at NCRA on the use of registry data, I thought I’d make a
monthly section separate from other resources that call your attention to registry data being used in
research. It can make us all proud to see how registrars’ daily work has contributed to these
publications. If your institution has a registry-based publication, please pass it on to me. I start us off this
month with a dozen abstracts from The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting that were
just published. This is just a sampling of the research papers being presented at that meeting which
depended on registry data.
Barriers to creating the next-generation cancer registry
http://abstracts.asco.org/144/AbstView_144_134606.html
Survival disparities and trend of head and neck cancer in the United States: A Surveillance,
Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database study 1973-2010 (MU physicians)
http://abstracts.asco.org/144/AbstView_144_131068.html
Survival among elderly breast cancer patients by receipt of HER2-targeted therapy: A matched
analysis of national registry data (SEER)
http://abstracts.asco.org/144/AbstView_144_128902.html
Impact of marital status on prognostic outcome of women with breast cancer (SEER)
http://abstracts.asco.org/144/AbstView_144_134341.html
Comparative effectiveness of laparoscopy versus open colectomy among non-metastatic colon
cancer patients: An analysis using the National Cancer Data Base
http://abstracts.asco.org/144/AbstView_144_134091.html
Impact of comorbidity and age on survival among older veterans with early stage non-small
cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Veterans Affairs CCR)
http://abstracts.asco.org/144/AbstView_144_125856.html
Variation in use of palliative resection of primary tumor at first presentation of metastatic
colorectal cancer within the New Jersey State Cancer Registry
http://abstracts.asco.org/144/AbstView_144_128441.html
Gastric cancer (GC) among California Asians: Analysis of California Cancer Registry (CCR)
http://abstracts.asco.org/144/AbstView_144_135151.html
Rising incidence of young-onset colorectal cancer in Texas, 1995-2010
http://abstracts.asco.org/144/AbstView_144_129179.html
Geographic variation in high-risk uterine cancer histology and access to care (North Carolina)
http://abstracts.asco.org/144/AbstView_144_132052.html
Impact of beta-blocker medication use on prostate cancer survival: Results from a singleinstitution cancer registry (Mayo) http://abstracts.asco.org/144/AbstView_144_133577.html
Impact from primary and recurrent treatment on survival of FIGO IIIc epithelial ovarian cancer
patients (Norway) http://abstracts.asco.org/144/AbstView_144_126669.html
RESOURCES
Get off your seat – the effects of too much sitting
http://thenationshealth.aphapublications.org/content/44/4/24.full?sid=dca3c91c-adeb-4072-8450059268c415ec
HER2 important in gastric cancers (note: it will be added to pathology reports per CAP protocols soon,
but is not a collected SSF in CSv2.05)
http://www.captodayonline.com/second-act-for-her2-in-gastric-cancers/
Vitamin D and Prostate Cancer Disparities
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/276190.php
Happy abstracting,
Nancy H. Rold, CTR
QA Unit Supervisor
Missouri Cancer Registry and Research Center