Table 2.
The definition of the 30 lung cancer coding items considered in this study.
| Coding Type | Description |
|---|---|
| AJCC Edition | The version and chapters of the AJCC (American Joint Committee on Cancer) cancer staging manual used to determine the cancer stage of the case. |
| Behavior Code | The morphological code (M-code) in the pathological diagnosis. The 5th code in the M-code is the behavior code. The first four digits of M-code indicate the specific histological term. The fifth digit is the behavior code, which indicates whether a tumor is malignant, benign, in situ, or uncertain. |
| Clinical Other Staging Group | The classification standards of the selected “Other Staging Systems” (defined below) chosen for staging cancer cases |
| Clinical Stage Descriptor | The prefix or suffix used in conjunction with clinical TNM fields. The prefix/suffix denotes special circumstances that may affect the staging and analysis of the data and is based on the clinical T, N, and M categories prior to treatment. |
| Date of First Microscopic Confirmation | The earliest date when the case's cancer was confirmed by microscopy. |
| Date of First Surgical Procedure | The earliest date of surgery for cancer performed at any medical institution. |
| Date of Initial Diagnosis | The earliest date the cancer was diagnosed by a physician. |
| Date of Surgical Diagnostic and Staging Procedure | The date of the surgical treatment performed for diagnosis or staging at any medical institution. |
| Diagnostic Confirmation | The most accurate basis of diagnosis at the reporting hospital or an external hospital for the case. |
| Grade Clinical | The grading/differentiation of the solid tumor before the first treatment. Grading/differentiation refers to the degree of similarity between the tumor and normal tissues. Well differentiated (Grade I) is most similar to normal tissue; undifferentiated (Grade IV) is most dissimilar from normal tissue. |
| Grade Pathological | The grading/differentiation of the solid tumor after surgery at the primary site. Grading/differentiation refers to the degree of similarity between the tumor and normal tissues. Well differentiated (Grade I) is most similar to normal tissue; undifferentiated (Grade IV) is most dissimilar from normal tissue. |
| Histology | The structure of the primary tumor cells under the microscope. |
| Laterality | The specification of whether the cancer originates from one side of a pair of organs or the body. It is a only applicable to the primary tumor site. |
| Lymph vessels or Vascular Invasion | The code is recorded based on the pathological report of the primary site to indicate the presence or absence of invasion into lymph vessels or blood vessels. |
| Nodes Examined | The total number of regional lymph nodes examined by a pathologist. |
| Nodes Positive | The total number of positive regional lymph nodes examined by a pathologist. |
| Other Staging System | The selection of alternative staging criteria if the AJCC Cancer Staging System is not utilized. |
| Pathologic M | The presence of distant metastases of the primary tumor |
| Pathologic N | The regional lymph nodes involvement of the tumor. The item is encoded based on all clinical evaluations done prior to definitive surgery, plus all information through completion of definitive surgeries in the first course of treatment in the absence of disease progression or within 4 months of diagnosis, whichever is longer. |
| Pathologic Stage Descriptor | The prefix or suffix used in conjunction with pathologic TNM fields. The prefix/suffix denotes special circumstances that may affect the staging and analysis of the data and is based on the pathologic T, N, and M categories after completion of surgical treatment. |
| Pathologic T | The size of the primary tumor and its invasion into adjacent tissues. The item is encoded based on all clinical evaluations done prior to definitive surgery, plus all information through completion of definitive surgeries in the first course of treatment in the absence of disease progression or within 4 months of diagnosis, whichever is longer. |
| Perineural Invasion | The presence of neural invasion as noted in the pathological report of the primary site in the medical records. |
| Primary Site | The primary site of the cancer. |
| Scope of Regional Lymph Node Surgery | The extent of regional lymph nodes removed, sectioned, or aspirated during the primary site surgery or another separate surgery at the reporting hospital. |
| SSF 2 | Cancer site-specific factors (SSF) related to prognosis and treatment decisions. SSF2: Visceral pleural Invasion (VPI)/elastic layer value set SSF5: Sampling or dissection of mediastinal lymph nodes (N2 Nodes) value set SSF6: EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor ) gene mutation value set SSF7: ALK (Anaplastic lymphoma kinase) gene translocation value set |
| SSF 5 | |
| SSF 6 | |
| SSF 7 | |
| Surgical Margins | The final status of the surgical margins after the primary tumor is removed. |
| Surgical Margins Distance | The closest distance of tumor cells to the surgical margins in the pathological report after the primary tumor is removed. |