Welcome to NCRA’s
Strategic Alliances & Advocacy News
Recognizing NCRA’s work with its strategic partners requires timely communications with members, NCRA has established the e-brief to highlight key updates and news from its work with industry partners.
The content covered will be from NCRA’s formal liaisons to partner organizations and Adam Ebbin, NCRA’s Public Policy and Strategy Consultant. NCRA may also include information from its federal partners at the CDC and NCI on occasion.
If you have any questions or need additional information about issues outlined in this issue of the Strategic Alliances & Advocacy News, email policystaff@ncra-usa.org.
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American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC)
NCRA’s CoC Liaison: Cheryl Sheridan, RHIT, CTR
American College of Surgeons – Announces New STORE 2023 Data Items and AJCC Staging Protocols
The Standards for Oncology Registry Entry (STORE v2023) Manual, effective for cases diagnosed January 1, 2023, was released on 10/7/22. The manual can be found on the National Cancer Database (NCDB) Call for Data web page located under Registry Manuals (https://www.facs.org/quality-programs/cancer-programs/national-cancer-database/ncdb-call-for-data). Refer to the chapter “STORE 2023 Summary of Changes” on p 29 for a description of changes in this year’s STORE. Additional communication and detail will follow. Three new 9th Version American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) protocols on anal, appendiceal, and brain cancer have now been published for Kindle and print on demand on the Amazon website. Each protocol provides comprehensive staging information, including site-specific staging rules, diagnostic-staging and pathologic-staging tables, and survival curves demonstrating prognosis and the evidence in support of each stage group.
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American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)
NCRA’s AJCC Liaison: Vonetta L. Williams, PhD, MPH, CTR
NEW! AJCC Anus, Appendix, and Brain and Spinal Cord Protocols Now Available
The AJCC Anus, Appendix, and Brain and Spinal Cord Version 9 Cancer Staging Protocols are now available worldwide via Amazon. Version 9 of the Cancer Staging System, the successor of the 8th Edition Cancer Staging Manual, is being rolled out by disease site with updates implemented as the science and evidence dictate changes. The Amazon version is available through Kindle and will soon be available via Amazon print on demand. When the printed version is made available an additional announcement will be released. Likewise, an announcement will be made when the printed versions are available. Please see the following Amazon website for ordering information, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B091S5NMYB?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=dbs_s_ks_series_rwt_tkin&qid=1665583508&sr=1-4
The updated Version 9 disease site changes for Anus, Appendix, and Brain and Spinal Cord will go into effect on January 1, 2023 and the cost of each protocol is $9.99 USD (plus applicable tax). Please be on the lookout for more educational material regarding the 3 updated protocols on social media, the Journal of Registry Management, and the AJCC website, https://www.facs.org/quality-programs/cancer-programs/american-joint-committee-on-cancer/version-9. Also, FAQ’s regarding Version 9 protocols are available at the aforementioned website.
Acknowledgements: Article written by Melissa Leeb and AJCC Leadership team
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Cancer PathCHART
NCRA’s Cancer PathCHART Liaison: Janet Reynolds, BA, CTR
Cancer PathCHART Continued Efforts
The Cancer PathCHART collaborative continues efforts to produce an integrated, relational database that links histology terminology with tumor topography, morphology, behavior and histologic grade codes and descriptions across versions of the WHO Classifications of Tumors, ICD-O, CAP cancer protocols and checklists, AJCC, SNOMED and ICD-10 CM.
The Implementation Workgroup recently selected several CTR volunteers to participate in two activities. The initial group will be involved in the review of possible, not likely/rare, or impossible combinations of site and histology as initially assigned through pathologist review. The second group consists of managers from various types and sizes of Cancer Registries who will participate in an interview process to identify ways that Cancer PathCHART products may be utilized by their registries, what type of educational/training materials will be needed, and what is needed to incorporate those into practice.
The program is on track to provide the initial “products” by 2024, which include tables showing all current and historical histology codes and terms and their compatibility with specific sites, assessing combinations of site and histology as possible, not likely/rare or impossible. These will be available to the software companies to map into the Cancer Registry applications and trigger edits. The eventual plan is still to offer an online tool somewhat like the SEER hematopoietic database, but this initial mapping is the fundamental requirement for such a tool to function.
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North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR)
NCRA’s NAACCR Liaison: Heather Stabinsky, MS. Ed, CTR
NAACCR Implementation Guidelines Task Force- EOY 2022
As we move through the last quarter of 2022, data requirements for 2023 are being announced and requirements for 2024 are being planned. Registrars will see new changes to abstract fields including and most notably, surgery fields. The NAACCR Implementation Guidelines Task Force has created and posted the “2023 Implementation Guidelines and Recommendation” to the NAACCR website (https://www.naaccr.org/implementation-guidelines). This important document provides an overview of changes in cancer reporting standards registry groups and registrars need to consider for 2023 diagnoses. The Guidelines include relevant information for hospital and central registry CTRs like,
- New Data Items for 2023
- Changed Data Items for 2023
- Edits
- Standard setter reporting requirements
The Guidelines Table of Contents can help CTRs navigate to what is most important to them.
The NAACCR Uniform Data Standards Workgroup continues the review of new codes and instructions for 2024. As indicated in the 2023 Implementation Guidelines and Recommendations, the registry community will begin to see a shift from 2-character numeric codes to 4-character alphanumeric surgery codes in 2023. This will continue in 2024 and the members of the UDS work group continue to analyze the instructions for these new surgery codes for additional sites. The sponsor of these changes is the Commission on Cancer (CoC).
Are you interested in volunteering at a national level? NAACCR continues to look for cancer registry professionals interested in make connections with other members who share the same interests. If you are interested in finding out more about NAACCR’s volunteer opportunities, please submit your information at https://www.naaccr.org/member-ambassador-program. You can also send an email to info@naaccr.org.
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Cancer Surgery Standards Program (CSSP)
NCRA’s NAPBC Liaison: Nadine Walker, MS, CTR
Now Closed: CSSP Survey on the Status of CoC Operative Standards Implementation
Thank you to all hospital registrars, co-registrars, administrators, and physicians for taking the time to complete the Cancer Surgery Standards Program’s (CSSP) survey on the implementation of CoC Operative Standards! This survey will provide insight on the awareness of the CoC Operative Standards and the experiences of registrars, administrators, and physicians with the implementation of these standards. We’ve received approximately 320 responses and will analyze the responses to guide the development of our upcoming resources.
CSSP Webinar Thank You: 2023 Site Review Preparation Webinar for CoC Standard 5.3-5.8 and Implementing Synoptic Requirements for CoC Operative Standards Webinar
Thank you to everyone who was able to join our webinar on the 2023 Site Review Preparation for CoC Standards 5.3-5.8 and the webinar for Implementing Synoptic Requirements for CoC Operative Standards! We would also like to thank our speakers for taking the time to answer questions and share their expertise with the audience. The webinar recordings and slide decks are now available in the Operative Standards Toolkit. The summary documents with questions received during the webinars will be posted in the Operative Standards Toolkit in the coming weeks.
Anyone who was not able to attend these live events are encouraged to review these materials and send any questions to cssp@facs.org.
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Public Policy and Strategy
NCRA’s Public Policy and Strategy Consultant: Adam Ebbin
NCRA Partners with OVAC on Funding Requests
NCRA is continuing to work on federal funding priorities with the One Voice Against Cancer (OVAC) coalition. OVAC is a 22-year-old working group of public health organizations advocating for greater federal investments in cancer research. OVAC has grown into the leading cancer coalition in the nation’s capital representing millions of cancer researchers, physicians, nurses, patients, survivors, and their families. OVAC is united behind a message of long-term, sustained funding increases for cancer research and prevention on the federal level, especially for the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute and the Division of Cancer Control & Prevention at the CDC.
NCRA has been a member of OVAC for more than seven years in order to amplify our voice when it comes to increased funding for the CDC's National Program for Cancer Registries (NPCR) and the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. OVAC recently sent a letter to top Congressional appropriators calling for a better result for registry funding for Fiscal Year '23 than in FY '22. The letter was signed by 52 member organizations, underscoring a unified appeal for cancer funding: including an increase to the $61.4 level for NCPR. That funding level would allow NPCR to start to expand its pilot of cloud-based state central cancer registries, moving closer to real-time reporting of cancer statistics.
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