California Cancer Reporting System Standards Volume I: Abstracting and Coding Procedures
The text field for staging is used to document additional staging and diagnostic workup information not already entered in other text fields.
Use standard medical abbreviations when possible. See Appendices M.1 and M.2 for common acceptable abbreviations.
Use phrases not complete sentences. Separate phrases using either periods (.) or semi-colons (:).
Avoid using only uppercase/capitals in text documentation.
The following information should be entered in chronological order by date.
Date(s) of procedure(s), including clinical procedures that provided information for assigning stage
Use either a slash (/) or hyphen (-) to separate month, day, and year.
Type of procedure performed
Findings used for staging purposes
Do not repeat information from other text fields.
Staging by physicians (other than the pathologist) may be recorded in this field.
Record the type of physician recording the stage (Managing MD, Radiation Oncologist, Registrar and MD, etc).
Staging by the pathologist should be recorded in the Text-Pathology Findings field.