California Cancer Reporting System Standards Volume I: Abstracting and Coding Procedures
Vague dates refers to those occasions where incomplete or vague date information exists in the medical record. This instruction directs abstractors on how to enter vague dates.
Enter an approximate date when the exact date cannot be determined.
At a minimum, a year of diagnosis is required for all analytic cases (Class of Case 00-22).
The year of diagnosis must be known or estimated and cannot be blank or unknown.
The date of first cancer directed therapy may be used as the date of diagnosis, if the therapy was initiated before definitive confirmation of the diagnosis.
Text documentation must be provided for the basis of the estimated date.