Tumor Talk

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Tumor Talk

Tumor Tip of the Week 09-20-2024 Neoadjuvant Therapy

09-20-2024 Neoadjuvant Therapy Scenario:   Patient presented with Rectal Primary cT2 cN2a cM0 Stage 3B Grade 3 Adenocarcinoma Treatment Plan: Total neo-adjuvant therapy followed by consolidative proctocolectomy with perhaps formation of a permanent colostomy pending response to treatment Patient treated with Neoadjuvant Chemo/XRT After neoadjuvant therapy complete Flexible Sigmoidoscopy shows no visible cancer, biopsies negative. Scans […]

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Tumor Talk

Tumor Tip of the Week-09-06-2024 A discussion on clinical stage of kidney cancer

Scenario: 09-01-2024 CT Abdomen/Pelvis: A 1.8 cm left superior pole complex cystic lesion with hyper enhancing solid nodular component with washout concerning for renal cell carcinoma (Bosniak IV). No retroperitoneal lymphadenopathy. Bilateral renal veins are patent. 09-15-2024 H&P: 51 YO Married White Non-Hispanic Female with 1.8 cm left renal lesion concerning for renal cell carcinoma […]

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Tumor Talk

Tumor Tip of the Week 08-30-2024 Regional Node Positive/Examined Document Where They Come From

Scenario#1: Positive FNA of a lymph node in same lymph node chain removed at surgery Lung Cancer FNA Hilar Node+ Lobectomy 3 Hilar nodes +, 2/11 Mediastinal Nodes +   LN Station Result Regional LN Positive   Regional LN Examined   Hilar 1 FNA (+) 3 Nodes +   3 per STORE/SEER Do not count […]

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Tumor Talk

Tumor Tip of the Week-08-16-2024 Free Educational Opportunity-SEER Educational Workshop

Log into SEER*Educate (You’ll have to create an account & log in) Click on the Training Tab-Then SEER Educational Workshops Tab Complete the 2024 SEER Workshop Cases-Complete the exercises prior to attending the workshop {Even if you don’t attend the workshop, you can still get CEs for finishing the cases.} Neoadjuvant-Breast, 1.5 CEs, 10 cases […]

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Tumor Talk

Tumor Tip of the Week – 08-09-2024 Prostate Cores Examined and Positive-Clarifications

Recently I attended the FCRA Conference and Jennifer Ruhl presented the scenario below, providing clarifications on capturing these 2 data fields. Please review the CAnswer Forum post provided in the link below for explanation & clarifications. Scenario: Specimen A-J, I-N. Negative 14 cores per gross description (no counts available from final diagnosis) PROSTATE, RIGHT LATERAL, […]

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Tumor Talk

Tumor Tip of the Week-07-26-2024 CPC*Search Cancer / PathCHART Search

07-26-2024 CPC*Search Cancer / PathCHART Search Just wanted to highlight another handy little tool, CPC*Search .  This might be a helpful tool in your arsenal of defense when trying to help determine the appropriate site, histology and behavior codes combinations. Now it should not be your first line of defense, but sometimes it can help […]

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Tumor Talk

Tumor Tip of the Week-07-19-2024 Pulse Check 2024 Abstracting

07-19-2024 Pulse Check 2024 Abstracting Most have started abstracting 2024 cases by now, just wanted to do a little check to make sure everyone has the tools they need to stay current. Required Reading prior to abstracting 2024 cases: 2024 NAACCR Implementation Guidelines and Recommendations (Revised January 2023) ICD-O-3.2 Implementation Documents for implementation in 2024 […]

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Tumor Talk

Tumor Tip of the Week 07-12-2024 Clear Cell Papillary Renal Cell Ca-do not use your drop-down menu

Scenario: 2024 RIGHT KIDNEY NEPHRECTOMY:   -CLEAR-CELL PAPILLARY RENAL CELL CARCINOMA Question: How would you code histology? 8260 Papillary renal cell carcinoma (C64.9) 8312 Renal cell carcinoma 8310 Clear cell renal cell carcinoma 8323 Mixed cell adenocarcinoma Answer:  8323 Mixed cell adenocarcinoma Rationale: Remember to always start with the Solid Tumor Rules when coding histology, not […]

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Tumor Talk

Tumor Tip of the Week-06-28-2024 No DRE-No Clinical T, a cT BLANK is better than an assumption

06-28-2024 No DRE-No Clinical T, a cT BLANK is better than an assumption We have seen a trend where Urologists are not performing or not documenting the information about the Digital Rectal Exam (DRE) prior to biopsy, but as a reminder, the cT category is based only on the DRE. Hopefully, this will be addressed […]

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Tumor Talk

Tumor Tip of the Week- 06-21-2024 Make sure you are recording all treatment -includes treatment done-recommended-refused-contraindicated

Just as important as it is to code the treatment a patient received, you also need to code when a treatment is not given due to various reasons, like contraindicated, patient expired, patient refused, or recommended but unknown if done- be sure to follow up on those cases. It is important to document why standard […]

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Tumor Talk

Tumor Tip of the Week 06-07-2024 Radiation Treatment Volume GYN Brachytherapy after TAHBSO

Scenario: • Endometrioid Adenocarcinoma pT3b pN0 treated with TAH/BSO + XRT • Phase 1 XRT: 2/10/2024 to 3/13/2024, Whole pelvis XRT IMRT/6x, 180 cGy x 25 fx to 4500 cGy • Phase 2 XRT: 3/16/2024 to 3/21/2024, Vaginal cuff HDR brachytherapy Ir-192 seeds, 600 cGy x 2 fx to 1200 cGy Question: How would you […]

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Tumor Talk

Tumor Tip of the Week 05-31-2024 Most Specific vs Distinctly Different

Scenario: 2024 Endometrium, curettage: Endometrioid adenocarcinoma, FIGO GR 1 w/ squamous differentiation. TAH/BSO SLN Dissection: Endometrium – Endometrioid adenocarcinoma (FIGO GR 1), confined to the endometrium Question: How would you code Histology? 8380 Endometrioid adenocarcinoma 8570 Endometrioid carcinoma with squamous differentiation Answer: 8570 Endometrioid carcinoma with squamous differentiation Rationale & Discussion: The term “most specific” […]

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