A common edit that is seen when preparing for the NCDB Call for Data is Cancer Status/Recurrence Type discrepancies. We find that this often happens when a patient recurs, and the registrar adds the recurrence information but forgets to change the Cancer Status. Other times the patient’s abstract is changed during follow-up to reflect No Evidence of Disease, but the Recurrence Type continues to show Never Disease Free.
Remember:
- If Recurrence Type is coded to Never Disease Free, Cancer Status should be Evidence of this Tumor.
- If Cancer Status is coded to No Evidence of this Tumor, Recurrence Status should not be Never Disease Free.
To reduce the frequency of this edit, one suggestion would be to create and run a report that shows these two fields side by side during routine QA. Cases with discrepancies can be returned to the abstractor for correction.
Another option would be to create a Follow-Up Specific Required Fields list to prompt your follow-Up team to review these fields while entering Follow-Up information.
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