The 49th Annual Educational Conference hosted by the National Cancer Registrars Association (NCRA) will be held May 7-10, 2023 in San Diego at the Town and Country Resort.
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]]>The 49th Annual Educational Conference hosted by the National Cancer Registrars Association (NCRA) will be held May 7-10, 2023 in San Diego at the Town and Country Resort. This year’s event will be a hybrid venue, i.e., live attendance with access to live streaming and on-demand sessions after the conference. Virtual attendees will be able to attend the live sessions and present questions online during the Q&A.
The conference will feature important cancer registry topics focusing on current issues and trends in the cancer registry profession. Registrars can earn up to 20+ continuing education (CE) credits to use in maintaining their credentials.
Why should you attend?
Click on any of the links below to access conference registration, hotel and session information:
Come “Sailing Towards New Horizons” with your friends and cancer registry professional association in May. Looking forward to seeing you in San Diego!
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]]>How did you find your calling in life? Florence Nightingale knew at a very young age she was being called as a nurse. Her family was not supportive and felt it to be beneath her
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]]>How did you find your calling in life? Florence Nightingale knew at a very young age she was being called as a nurse. Her family was not supportive and felt it to be beneath her station in life as a debutante in a wealthy and privileged society. She volunteered to work in a hospital to explore her dream. But her family bullied and punished her every step of the way. Struggling to make the most important decision of her life, she wrote to Dr. Samuel G. Howe asking for advice. He responded by saying, “…if you have a vocation for that way of life, act up to your inspiration and you will find there is never anything unbecoming or unladylike in doing your duty for the good of others. Choose, go on with it, wherever it may lead you.”
#CTR #cancerregistry #cancerregistrar #cancer #purpose #inspiration
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]]>The number of cancer survivors is growing in the USA as a result of combined effects of a growing and aging population as well as advances in early detection and […]
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]]>The number of cancer survivors is growing in the USA as a result of combined effects of a growing and aging population as well as advances in early detection and treatment. The American Cancer Society collaborates with the National Cancer Institute to estimate cancer prevalence in the US for the most common cancers. In the 2022 report statistics on contemporary treatment patterns and survival as well as issues related to survivorship and the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed. Then, for the first time, treatment data by race/ethnicity for a selected set of cancers (female breast, colon, rectum, lung and uterus) are also presented.
Information in this report can be very useful for cancer registrars and administrators for statistical comparison or to understand the unique characteristics of the population in your region.
Download the report here and share with your colleagues!
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]]>NAACCR released the 2023 updates to the ICD-O-3 histology and behavior codes. All Registrars, regardless of which type of facility, should become familiarw with the proposed changes and guidelines and coordinate with your software vendor updates to their software and edits metafiles.
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]]>8/22/2022 – NAACCR has released the 2023 updates to the ICD-O-3 histology and behavior codes. All Registrars, regardless of which type of facility, should become familiarw with the proposed changes and guidelines and coordinate with your software vendor updates to their software and edits metafiles.
To download the files (at no charge), click here ICD O 3 Coding Updates – NAACCR. Updates are available in PDF and Excel file formats. Code lists are available in numeric and alpha tables. Also available is an annotated histology list with descriptions. Be sure to read the Coding Guidelines document for the summary of changes and how updates will be implemented and the rationale for doing so.
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]]>There are over 300 different types of cancer. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has made available a comprehensive resource with descriptions of these types.
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]]>There are over 300 different types of cancer. A cancer registrar is specially trained in how to correctly gather the data from the medical record and to code and classify it for research and strategic planning. From time to time they will come across a type of cancer they may not be as familiar with as compared to cancers like lung, colon, prostate, breast, etc. Having a resource like this one published by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is very helpful.
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]]>The American College of Surgeons (ACoS) presented several sessions at the National Cancer Registrar's Association (NCRA) annual educational conference held on June 3-5, 2021. In response to the participant questions asked at each of these sessions, the ACoS has released a PDF with a written response to all the questions they received.
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]]>The American College of Surgeons (ACoS) presented several sessions at the National Cancer Registrar’s Association (NCRA) annual educational conference held on June 3-5, 2021. In response to the participant questions asked at each of these sessions, the ACoS has released a PDF with a written response to all the questions they received. You can view this document below.
Note: if you cannot see the PDF document, copy and paste this URL into your web browser: https://www.facs.org/-/media/files/quality-programs/cancer/ncra_meeting_qa.ashx.
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]]>Cancer staging is a fairly complex task and has many components and variables that cancer registrars must take into account. Let's have some fun and test your knowledge about staging.
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]]>Cancer staging is a fairly complex task and has many components and variables that cancer registrars must take into account. Let’s have some fun and test your knowledge about staging. To see survey results, scroll to the bottom of the post and click on “Statistics – View the Results” tab.
Please answer three questions in the short quiz below.
[perfect_survey id=”1325″]
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]]>Cancer Registrars collect and analyze data to tell a story about the latest trends in their facility, region, state or nationally. Understanding how the statistics are derived and calculated, especially if you are going to compare your hospital with another program, state or national benchmark is very important.
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]]>Cancer Registrars collect and analyze data to tell a story about the latest trends in their facility, region, state or nationally. Understanding how the statistics are derived and calculated, especially if you are going to compare your hospital with another program, state or national benchmark is very important.
SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results) has made available a series of online videos called Did You Know? The video’s highlight key topics and trends and are helpful in understanding cancer-related statistics.
Here is one of these videos, titled “Cancer Statistics.”
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]]>When is chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in remission? What does it mean when the medical record states the CLL patient has a complete or partial remission? All great questions often heard around the table when cancer registrars get together. This article briefly describes the types of remission and the laboratory studies and tests used to determine its status.
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]]>When is chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in remission? What does it mean when the medical record states the CLL patient has a complete or partial remission? All great questions often heard around the table when cancer registrars get together.
CLL is the most common type of leukemia in the United States in American adults. Over 175,000 men and women are currently living with CLL, and many of them with a good quality of life. While a cure is not yet available there are a wide-range of effective treatments available today. For patients with slow-growing disease or who are in clinical remission, they may not even require active therapy. Of course, Cancer Registrars will be looking for all of this information and coding it appropriately in the case abstract.
Standard treatment for CLL is chemotherapy and radiation. However, newer treatments are being tested and made available to patients to help them achieve partial and complete remission for longer and longer periods of time. Newer therapies include:
There are two types CLL remission which we will describe below:
Laboratory tests are an important part of the medical record that the Cancer Registrar must review. For CLL you should look at the following:
CLL can be in remission for many years, but there is always a chance it could come back. It is not uncommon for a physician to recommend a “watch and wait” form of long-term surveillance. This is why it is so important for the Cancer Registrar to understand the disease process and to gather accurate and complete follow-up and cancer status information throughout the patient’s lifetime.
Cancer Registrar’s should consult the SEER hematologic coding and abstracting resources to determine other steps or actions taken during the case abstraction process, whether they are in a SEER-designated State or not.
Disclaimer – this article is not used to determine coding or abstracting standrds! Rather it is an informational guide to help the Registrar understand what they may find in the medical record. For coding or abstracting standards please refer to your apppropriate manuals.
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]]>Biomarkers, or biological markers, are molecules found in body tissues and fluids, including tissue and blood. Cancer biomarkers provide important information about the patient's tumor. Biomarker terminology varies but it may also be called biomarker testing or tumor testing.
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]]>Biomarkers, or biological markers, are molecules found in body tissues and fluids, including tissue and blood. Cancer biomarkers provide important information about the patient’s tumor. Biomarker terminology varies but it may also be called biomarker testing or tumor testing. Biomarkers are usually a protein or antibody that is released by the tumor, or they may be the body’s response to the presence of cancer, which shows up like a gene mutation. There are a number of biomarkers used by clinicians today and more are being studied.
When a clinician orders a biomarker study, they are looking to answer important questions about the patient’s disease that may include:
As you can see above, biomarker testing helps the clinician identify critical information needed to develop and deliver an effective plan of treatment. Testing should happen as close to the diagnosis as possible and before a treatment plan is launched.
Discussion of biomarker results or as a predictor for treatment or recurrence is included in multidisciplinary cancer conferences (aka tumor boards) and physician-to-patient discussions. Cancer Registrars gather biomarkers and include relevant values and their types in the cancer case abstract that is used for clinical research, quality studies and comparative analysis.
(Source: Biomarkers and Biomarker Testing, Fight Colorectal Cancer, Springfield, MO.)
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