Enhancing the Reporting of Radiation Oncology Treatment Details to Central Cancer Registries and the SEER Program: A Report of Pilot Studies in Progress

Abstract

Reporting cancer treatment data to state cancer registries provides a framework for assessing national treatment and outcome trends and the foundation for health services and epidemiologic research. All cancer treatments are reportable to state cancer registries; however, radiation oncology details are generally limited to whether radiation was administered or not, without any details. By establishing standardized, scalable, and easy-to-adopt methods to acquire data derived from commercial radiation oncology information systems (ROIS) we hope to demonstrate that details of radiation oncology treatments can be successfully imported into central registries, thus facilitating new research on radiation treatments and outcomes at the population level. To assess the feasibility and requirements of enhancing and automating detailed reporting from ROIS to registries, we are facilitating the acquisition of radiation oncology data from two leading commercial systems that – combined – represent greater than 90% of US radiation oncology clinics. Independently, the systems will establish a secure interface to export data directly to one central cancer registry. Upon receipt, the central cancer registry will perform a linkage between the ROIS data and the registry data. A set of desired data elements was developed in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program and the project team of radiation oncology experts. The elements include patient demographics, diagnosis code, diagnosis date, treatment site, date of service, primary oncologist, facility, dose per fraction, total radiation dose, total number of fractions, number of sessions, dates of treatment, course dose delivered, frequency, and technique. The pilots will run at least 6 months at one large health system with multiple radiation oncology departments using ROIS from both venders. The two pilot projects will capture the data elements and export them to state registries. Exportable reports are being designed to account for industry standards of the data elements that currently exist in each ROIS. We anticipate presenting results separately after testing, but the goal is to make this process feasible regardless of site ROIS customization. To our knowledge, this is the first effort with collaboration from industry to develop a rich dataset of radiation treatment information to contribute to state and SEER registries. If feasible and scalable, these pilots will enable broad use of standard and efficient ways of reporting detailed radiation treatment data to registries. This reporting would fulfill radiation oncology reporting requirements and capture both initial and subsequent therapy. This enhanced data may be used for research to assess the utilization and outcomes of cancer treatments and improve the lives of cancer patients.