Consistency of primary brain tumor diagnoses and codes in cancer surveillance systems.
High-quality cancer registry data are essential for assessing trends in incidence rates. This study evaluated the consistency of brain tumor surveillance data using a random sample of cases from the Connecticut Tumor Registry. Three neuropathologists independently and blindly reviewed tumor slides from 204 cases and a nosologist blindly reviewed and assigned International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O) codes to 326 cases. For the pathology review, absolute concordance was as high as 81% for all primary brain tumors. Absolute concordance rates were high for nerve sheath (89%), meningioma (95%), and pituitary (95%) tumors. Rates were much lower for malignant tumors. ICD-O coding of malignant brain tumors is of relatively high quality with the exception of mixed gliomas and unspecified tumors. A high level of consistency for nonmalignant brain tumor diagnoses suggests that rates for these tumors, when actively reported to a surveillance system, can be of high quality.
Castillo
Monette S
MS
Department of Epidemiology/Biostatistics, University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
Davis
Faith G
FG
Surawicz
Tanya
T
Bruner
Janet M
JM
Bigner
Sandra
S
Coons
Stephen
S
Bigner
Darell D
DD
D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012042:Registries; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology