This month’s CTR Coding Break topic is “The 2023 Overview of Changes”. 2023 is a big year for major changes to nearly all manuals utilized for the abstraction of cancer cases by State, CoC and/or SEER reporting facilities. In this presentation, we discuss the primary seven manuals: AJCC 9th Editions, Grade Manual, Solid Tumor Rules, ICD-O-3.2, STORE Manual, SSDI Manual and the SEER Program Coding and…

This month’s CTR Coding Break topic is “Can you determine the priority order?” Some of the fields we assign have a priority order to use when there is conflicting information, and it can be challenging to know where to look for help. The objectives of this presentation are to identify some of the fields that contain a priority order and know where to look when you…

In the Registry Partners November CTR Coding Break, we will review different AJCC M topics such as M category assignment, clinical M components, and pathological M components. Criteria for the M category include the absence of cancer (M0) and involvement of sites/or organs outside of the local tumor area (M1). Negative physical exam is the minimum criteria to qualify for cM0.  pM1 can be coded in…

The October 2022 CTR Coding Break titled Malignant Cranial & Peripheral Nerve Tumors reviews anatomy of the twelve cranial nerves and peripheral nerve system, Table 4 in the Solid Tumor Rules Malignant CNS and Peripheral Nerves chapter, as well as discusses a couple case examples. Cranial Nerves come straight out of the brain and when those cranial nerves exit the cranium, they become peripheral nerves. Cranial nerves…