Mohammad Hossein Somi1, Roya Dolatkhah2*, Iraj Asvadi Kermani2, Sepideh Sepahi3, Narges Youzbashi3, Marzieh Nezamdoust3, Behnoush Abedi-Ardekani4
Objective: Multiple Primary Cancers (MPC) present many coding difficulties, while a distinction should be made between new cases and those with metastasis and/or extension and recurrence of the primary ones. We aimed to reflect on the experiences and results of data quality control of the East Azerbaijan/Iran population-based cancer registry and present our suggested rules for reporting, recording and registering multiple primary cancers.
Methods: Comparability, validity, timeliness, and completeness of data assessment were performed. We followed the established “rules for reporting incidence and survival". However, in some cases, we could not find any related data in published and established rules. As a result, we created an expert panel as a consulting team including expert oncologists, pathologists, and gastroenterologists to discuss each case.
Results: Overall, among 21,462 total cancer cases registered in EA-PBCR from 2015 to 2017, 35 cases were registered as MPCs, as follows: 10 out of 6655 in 2015, 12 out of 7042 in 2016, and 13 out of 7765 in 2017. In most cases, we coded the MPCs as the previous guidelines and provided tables that were somehow according to guidelines, with some more information and case presentations. Importantly, these suggested rules included cancers in the blood, breast, lung, stomach, small intestine, colorectal, bone, prostate, bladder, skin, and some additional hints.
Conclusion: Given the complexity of coding MPCs, we suggested some additional rules for identifying, recording, coding, and registering multiple primary cancers in the context of the EA-PBCR program.
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