California Cancer Reporting System Standards Volume I: Abstracting and Coding Procedures
Pathologic staging documents the tumor size/extension of the tumor known following the completion of surgical therapy.
Timing:
The timeframe from which information may be used about the extent of cancer for pathologic stage is from the time of diagnosis through end/completion of definitive surgery as part of first course treatment.
OR
Identified within 4 months after the date of diagnosis, whichever is longer provided there was no systemic or radiation treatment prior to surgery.
Criteria:
The pathologic stage classification may incorporate three components:
Clinical staging information
Evidence from operative findings
Pathologic evidence from resected tumor tissue
All three components are taken into consideration when determining the pathologic stage classification for patients who did not have neoadjuvant therapy.
The clinical stage component/information is EXCLUDED when determining the pathologic stage for patients who did receive neoadjuvant therapy prior to surgery
Assign the Pathologic (Prefix/Suffix) Descriptor as 4 (Y classification) or 6 (M&Y classification) for a patient who received neoadjuvant (preoperative) therapy.
MD observations or statements from the surgical resection regarding involved tissue or organs which are not biopsied may be used in assigning pathologic stage in conjunction with other findings.
If tissue is biopsied and pathologic exam disproves involvement, information is then excluded in assigning stage.