Download Mini-Update - August 2014 - Missouri Cancer Registry

MCR MINI-UPDATE AUGUST 2014
Fellow Registrars,
With both summer weather and registry operations, change seems to be a constant. Here is
the news for this month.
Due Dates
All facilities were to report December 2013 cases by July 15, 2014. As soon as submitted cases have
been fully processed by QA, we will prepare 2013 timeliness and completeness letters based on this
submission date.
All large hospitals (>500 cases/yr) are due to report January 2014 cases whenever MCR is ready to
accept your v14 cases (planned for some time after August 18th).
Education
NAACCR Webinars – Get 3 CEU 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.
August 7, 2014 – Collecting Cancer Data: Lung
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.
Registration will be accepted through the Monday before the Live Meeting.
IMPORTANT: Time Change : 11:00am – 12:00pm
August 13, 2014 – Multiple Primary and Histology Coding Rules: Lung
Presented by Angela Martin
To register for any of our educational opportunities, call 1-866-240-8809 or contact Shari Ackerman at
[email protected].
CancerCare: Connect Education workshop
August 20, 2014 – Treatment of Estrogen Receptor (ER) Positive & Progesterone Receptor (PR) Positive
Breast Cancer & Triple Negative Breast Cancer
To register http://www.cancercare.org/connect_workshops
MCR News
Staff News
Alena Headd is leaving us this month to take a job at the Sarah Cannon Cancer Center in Nashville, TN.
She has family in that area. She will use her expertise with customer support and the interface of
electronic data for health systems to enhance registry operations throughout the HCA system. Alena
has applied her many talents to both the operations and research arms of MCR-ARC. She developed
tracking databases to increase our efficiency and has been our go-to person when computers cause us
frustration. She has made a national name for herself by working on our special project #3 grant and
with NAACCR on electronic physician reporting innovations. She has also kept us smiling with her quick
wit and story-telling. We will be very sad to see her go, but we are happy that she has found a new
place to continue to grow and serve the cancer community.
Now Hiring!!
MCR-ARC seeks to fill two positions:
 Central Registry Data Coordinator – Quality Assurance is an additional full-time position to
bring our QA unit back up to full strength! It requires CTR credentials and 2 years of cancer
registry experience. The main duties are review of incoming files and consolidation of multiple
reports for a patient. There is a possibility for remote work. We hope that you will want to join
our team! See the full posting # 13943 at: http://hrs.missouri.edu/find-a-job/staff/index.php.
Please let me know if you have any questions.

Systems Support Analyst is an opening that will be posted shortly.
Gold Again!
Thanks to all of you for submitting complete and high quality data that earned us the GOLD standard
from NAACCR once again this year. Kudos go to the QA staff for working hard to get our submission
cleaned and ready to go, and to Saba Yemane for shepherding us through the technical steps/timeline.
We are already gearing up for submission of 2012 data this fall. If you have any straggling 2012 cases to
send us, please do so as soon as possible. Every case counts!
Conversion
All facilities should have converted their software to NAACCR v14 in July. If you have not done so,
please schedule it as soon as possible. MCR will convert our systems the week of August 18. We will
send out a blast email to tell you when Web Plus is down and when it re-opens to accept v14.
MO V14A metafile
MO v14A edit metafile was sent to vendors 7/21/14 and replaces the MO v14 edit metafile provided in
February. Changes were made at the national level. There are no new Missouri-specific edits. If you
have not yet been upgraded to NAACCR v14 software, check upon upgrade that this metafile is
included. Metriq users who have already upgraded to v14 will need to incorporate this new edit
metafile into their system. A copy is available on the MCR website. Web Plus will check your 2014 files
against these edits starting in August, so please run v14A edits and resolve any errors before upload.
Reportability Reminder
As we alerted you in February, adenocarcinoma in situ of the cervix is no longer reportable, starting
with 2014 diagnosis cases. You may collect them if so directed by your facility, but they should not be
sent to MCR.
MCR Manual
The MCR Manual has been updated for 2014 and is available on the MCR website under Hospital. It
includes the new sections on Grade. If FORDS is further updated for 2014, we may make additional
revisions accordingly. However, we did not want you to be left without the basic manual while waiting
on FORDS.
Abstracting Tips
 Brain Surgery - When coding primary site surgery for brain primaries, be careful not to confuse
the “craniotomy” with surgical treatment. The craniotomy is the means of creating an opening
to access the tumor for either biopsy or resection and is not itself cancer-directed treatment.

Histology Combination Codes - When entering text documentation to support a combination
histology code from a MPH table, be sure to specify each tumor type that qualifies the tumor for
the combination code.
Example: Final pathologic diagnosis is DCIS, cribriform and solid types which is coded 8523
according to Rule H6 in the MPH breast module.
Good text documentation = “DCIS, cribriform & solid types”
Unacceptable = “Mixed DCIS”

Grade & Neo-adjuvant Tx - Remember to code the grade or differentiation from the pathology
report prior to any neo-adjuvant treatment. If there is no pathology report prior to neoadjuvant treatment, assign code 9. Be sure to clearly note the pre-treatment grade in the
abstract text.

Treatment Date Flags - When treatment is stated as “unknown,” do not code as “not given.”
Enter the appropriate code showing the status as unknown and enter the date flag for the
treatment as either 10 (unknown) or 15 (planned, not given yet).
Standard Setter/National News
SSDI Restrictions
If your registry is a survival registry performing patient follow-up, I highly recommend that you take a
look at this article. The Social Security Administrations has new restrictions meant to deter identity
theft that will impact registries striving to maintain current survival information. Release of death
information from SSA will now be delayed several years, and then only to users who have been certified
and paid a fee. MCR is waiting on further details to unfold. Restrictions on our re-release of death
information we receive from MO Bureau of Vital Statistics, VA and other state registries of have not
changed. http://health-information.advanceweb.com/Columns/Registry-Perspectives/Restricted-SSDIRelease.aspx?utm_campaign=1165518&utm_content=9568291158&utm_medium=email&utm_source=
Emailvision
NCRA Free Short Podcasts
Developed and presented by members of the NCRA Advanced Education Sub-Committee, the Registry
Best Practice Series of audio presentations are intended to help your abstracting process become more
efficient and accurate. These excellent audio presentations are short, direct, and easy to understand
with play times between 2 and 6 minutes. Current topics include: Text (2 podcasts, yes, text is that
important!), Casefinding, Process of Gathering and Entering Info, Organizing Abstract Resources. You
may need an internet browser other than IE to access it. Check it out at:
http://www.cancerregistryeducation.org/resources
Registry to Research – publications using cancer registry data
Cancer Treatment Disparities in HIV-Infected Individuals in the US
http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/early/2014/06/24/JCO.2013.54.8644
Relationship between poverty rate and cancer incidence in the US
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.28632/full
Rates of Testicular Cancer Rising in Young Hispanic Men
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/news/rates-of-testicular-cancer-increasing-in-young-hispanic-men
15-yr Survival Outcomes following Primary Androgen-Deprivation Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer
http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1887061
HPV-Associated Oropharyngeal Cancer Rates by Race & Ethnicity
http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/statistics/headneck.htm
Resources
Impact of ITCs on breast cancer recurrence
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10549-014-3027-2
Game changer for leukemia therapy
http://www.oncologynurseadvisor.com/game-changer-for-leukemia-therapy/article/358332/
MU researcher finds that new cholesterol drug also combats breast cancer
http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2014/0617-potential-cholesterol-lowering-drug-has-breastcancer-fighting-capabilities-mu-researcher-finds/
Infographic: Cancer Survivorship
http://www.cancer.org/research/infographicgallery/survivorship-life-after-cancer
Google Glass in the operating room
http://bulletin.facs.org/2014/07/surgeons-see-future-applications-for-google-glass/
I hope to see you at the regional MOKA meeting with MoSTRA in Branson this
September. Remember that registration is due this week!
Nancy H. Rold, CTR
QA Unit Supervisor
Missouri Cancer Registry and Research Center