COVID-19 Q&A

A: The COVID-19 instructions apply to any case abstracted on or after 6/1/2020 which was diagnosed on or after 1/1/2020, unless you have different instructions from your state/central registry. SEER does not expect registrars to go back and conduct additional abstracting work on cases completed before 6/1/2020. Most cases diagnosed before 1/1/2020 would have been completed by 6/1/2020. While not required by SEER, abstraction of information for cases diagnosed before year 2020 or completed before 6/1/2020 could be useful for understanding the impact of COVID-19 and if abstracted, the information will be accepted by central registries.

A: Yes, collect the COVID info for the kidney cancer case. The date of the test will show that it was after the nephrectomy.

A: Record information in the treatment text fields when one of the treatments is affected by the pandemic. If there was no effect on treatment, no need to record anything in the treatment fields. Do report negative tests in the Lab Text field.

A: The COVID data collection is required for SEER registries. Other registries may participate if desired; however, their data will not be submitted to SEER.

A: This is fine.

A: Use the one that pertains to your situation. These abbreviations are interchangeable by NAACCR standards. The COVID-19 Abstracting Guidance document has been updated to make this more clear.

A: Use 99 or xx, whichever works for your software.

A: CAPS are preferred but not required. Follow usual rules for recording text.

A: Record the last test for both when a negative viral nucleic acid test and a negative antibody test are documented for the same patient. Record the date of each negative test. Viral RNA tests only indicate current infection; antibody tests indicate prior exposure. You can have a meaningful negative viral RNA test if it has been long enough between symptom onset and testing and a positive or negative antibody test depending on when the blood was drawn relative to the infection. Both are meaningful. The COVID-19 Abstracting Guidance document has been updated to make this more clear. Example: COVID-19 viral NEG 03/09/2020 antibody NEG 05/09/2020

A: Yes, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR) are the most common diagnostic viral nucleic acid tests. They should be abstracted as a diagnostic viral nucleic acid test. The COVID Text Abstracting Guidance has been updated to reflect this information.

A: We did not ask for details about the changes to keep this effort as streamlined as possible and to reduce the amount of time it would take to record this information. If you want to provide the extra information, that is fine. But there is no expectation on our end for that information.

A: If you want to provide the extra information, that is fine. But there is no expectation on our end for that information.

A: Record the facility limitations in the remarks text field as: Z75.3 mm/dd/yyyy [unavailability or inaccessibility of health care facilities]. Also, record the postponement of surgery in the surgery text field as: SURG TX delayed D/T COVID-19. If surgery took place after disease progression, record as: SURG TX delayed D/T COVID-19 & given as subsequent TX after progression. The hormone therapy will be recorded in the hormone field, so that information will be captured.

A: Record the facility limitations in the remarks text field as: Z75.3 mm/dd/yyyy [unavailability or inaccessibility of health care facilities]. Use the appropriate text fields to record the delay in surgical and/or RT treatment.

A: The antibody test is not really "diagnostic" so if that is all you have, don’t record the ICD-10 code in the text field. But, if the ICD-10 code is documented or COVID-19 is documented in the medical record, even when only an antibody test was done, do record the ICD-10 code in the text field. The rationale is as follows: In the absence of documentation of COVID-19 in the medical record or death certificate and without a positive antigen test, a positive antibody test just says that the person was infected with SARS-CoV-2 and does not support that they develop the clinical manifestations of COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection.

A: Any delay attributed to the pandemic should be documented.

A: Document the surgery and the chemo/immuno DC. The patient could have received these treatments, but declined these due to the COVID situation, so we want that documented.

A: In this situation, record the refused treatments that correspond to the NCCN guidelines for this patient’s cancer diagnosis and record the other options that were offered and refused. The patient could have received these treatments, but declined these due to the COVID situation, so we want that documented

A: This sounds like a question for the AJCC forum in CAnswer Forum: Should hormone therapy given while awaiting surgery delayed due to COVID be recorded as neoadjuvant? If not, your software may need to be adjusted.

A: Second course treatment should be recorded in second course treatment fields if those fields are being collected by the facility/registry. If they are not collected, no need to record second course treatment. The COVID-19 Abstracting Guidance document has been updated to make this more clear.

A: You should at least know the year. For cases you are working on now, the year will be 2020.

A: No, the order does not matter.

A: If this change was made because of limited access to the facility or postponement of non-essential procedures due to the pandemic, abstract the date of decision to postpone and the Z75.3 code as shown. Z75.3 mm/dd/yyyy Also, abstract the change in surgical treatment in the Surgery text field as shown. SURG TX CHG D/T COVID-19

A: If you have information about the interpretation and the type of SARS-CoV-2 test, record it in the DX PROC--LAB TESTS text field. If you have information about the specific cancer treatments that were cancelled, record this information in the appropriate text field according to the COVID-19 Abstraction Guidance document. If you do not know the specific cancer treatments that were cancelled, use the Remarks text field as shown in this example. FCOT DC D/T COVID-19

A: Abstract the date of the decision to postpone the treatment. The date of the rescheduled procedure will be captured in the usual data item.

A: The Abstraction Guidelines document has been reviewed by over 20 hospital registrars selected by NCRA, in addition to registrars from SEER central registries, NCI physicians and NCI SEER Program staff. NCI has developed text mining algorithms and has used them for other projects. SEER will evaluate the methodology quarterly and will continue to work closely with SEER Registry Managers, the SEER Quality Improvement Experts group, NCRA, and NAACCR to adjust the methodology if necessary.