California Cancer Reporting System Standards Volume I: Abstracting and Coding Procedures
Synchronous Primaries are multiple histologically distinct tumors diagnosed simultaneously. Outlined below are surgical coding instructions for synchronous primaries.
If multiple primaries are excised at the same time, enter the appropriate code for each site.
Examples:
A total abdominal hysterectomy was performed for a patient with two primaries, one of the cervix and one of the endometrium.
Code each site as having had a total abdominal hysterectomy.
A total colectomy was performed on a patient with multiple primaries in several segments of the colon.
Code total colectomy for each of the primary segments.