California Cancer Reporting System Standards Volume I: Abstracting and Coding Procedures
Dates transmitted between facility registries and central registries changed to improve the interoperability or communication of cancer registry data with other electronic record systems. Registry software may display dates in the traditional manner or in the interoperable format. Consult your software vendor for specific data entry instructions.
Traditional dates are displayed in MMDDCCYY form, with 99 representing unknown day or month portions, and 99999999 representing a completely unknown date. In traditional form, some dates also permit 88888888 or 00000000 for special meaning.
Interoperable dates are displayed in CCYYMMDD form, with the unknown portions of the date filled with blank spaces. If a date is entirely blank, an associated date flag is used to explain the missing date. An allowable date must contain the year.
Description |
Traditional Date |
Interoperable Date |
Date Flag |
Full date known |
MMDDCCYY |
CCYYMMDD |
Blank |
Month and year known |
MM99CCYY |
CCYYMMbb |
Blank |
Year only known |
9999CCYY |
CCYYbbbb |
Blank |
Unknown date |
99999999 |
bbbbbbbb |
10, 11, 12, or 15* |
b= blank
* Allowable date flag values
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. Documentation must be provided for the basis of
the estimated
date.
Approximate Dates: At a minimum, a year of diagnosis is required for all analytic cases (Class of Case 00-22). Use the date treatment was started if the patient receives a first course of treatment before a definitive diagnosis. Documentation must be provided for the basis of the estimated date. Use the following coding procedures for estimating dates relating to diagnosis.
Estimating Year: Use whatever information is available to calculate the year. Enter the year of admission when there is no basis for estimation.
Terms |
Code To |
Couple of years ago |
Two years ago |
Few years ago |
Three years ago |
Terms |
Code To |
Recently |
Enter the month and year of admission, and unknown ("99" or leave blank-depending on your registry software) for the day. If patient was admitted during the first week of a month, enter the previous month |
Several months ago |
Assume the case was first diagnosed three months before admission with the day unknown when the patient was not previously treated or if a course of treatment started elsewhere was continued at the reporting facility |
Spring |
Enter as April |
Summer |
Enter as July |
Fall or Autumn |
Enter as October |
Winter |
Enter as December or January based on available information i.e. end/beginning of year |
Early in the year |
Enter as January |
Middle of the year |
Enter as July |
End of the year |
Enter as December |
Late in the year |
Enter as December |