Principles of Oncology for
Cancer Registry Professionals
 
 

May 6 - 10, 2013 -- Reno, NV

November 11 - 15, 2013 -- Reno, NV
Click here to register.

Daily Class Schedule
Specific Information for Students Attending our Reno Classes
 

Principles of Oncology is a concentrated five-day training program in cancer registry operations and procedures emphasizing accurate data collection methods. The training program includes extensive site-specific, hands-on case coding, abstracting and staging sessions using practice cases that are representative of the many situations registrars may face.

The program provides approximately 35 hours of classroom and individualized instruction on basic registry concepts, such as abstracting, staging (Collaborative Staging version 02.04, Summary Staging 2000, and TNM seventh edition), ICD-O coding, the 2007 Multiple Primaries and Histology Coding Rules, the 2012 Hematopoietic and Lymphoid Neoplasm Case Reportability and Coding Rules Manual, and using other resources available to registrars. Attendees will have the benefit of lectures as well as a variety of practical exercises. Extensive training materials prepared especially for this program will be provided to students
  

Who Should Attend

This program is suitable for oncology program employees (hospital-based and central registry) with minimal knowledge of cancer, anatomy, physiology, and medical terminology. Cancer registrars with less than one year of experience would benefit most from this program; however, registrars with up to three years experience and registrars preparing for the certification examination are welcome to attend.

Class size will be limited to 20 registrants.

Fees and Registration

The registration fee is $1050.00 for the five-day program held in Reno. The fee includes classroom and individualized instruction; an extensive training program manual; and two books of site-specific abstracting guidelines with coding and staging exercises with rationales.  All materials have been developed especially for this program and have been extensively revised for 2013.

We recommend that you bring a large suitcase or an extra bag to hold the materials you will receive. Alternatively, we will assist in shipping home notebooks and other materials at the end of the program at your expense.

Participants are responsible for their own travel, hotel, meals, and incidental expenses, except as noted above.  Lunch is provided Monday through Friday.

In order to register, complete our online registration form and pay with your credit/debit card or your PayPal account through our secure, encrypted connection.  If your employer is paying for the course and cannot pay with a credit/debit card, full payment must be received within 21 days of registration or 30 days prior to the start date (whichever comes first) to ensure your seat in the class.  Sorry, purchase orders are not accepted; however, you can pay the registration fee online by credit or debit card.

Checks should be payable to:

For further information about the training program, accommodations or travel arrangements, contact April. 

Registration is on a "first come, first served" basis and courses can fill up as much as six weeks ahead of the start date of the program. We strongly recommend that you register as early as possible.

Prerequisites

Prior to the start of the workshop, participants should be familiar with (at a minimum) the contents of Book One (Objectives and Functions of a Tumor Registry) and Book Three (Tumor Registrar Vocabulary: the Composition of Medical Terms) of the Self-Instructional Manual for Tumor Registrars.

These books, as well as a CD-ROM of the entire Self-Instructional Manual series of books, may be obtained free of charge from National Cancer Institute Publications Ordering Service, P.O. Box 24128, Baltimore, MD 21227; or online from SEER Publications.  Self-Instructional manuals may be downloaded individually (free of charge) from SEER.

Homework (reading and exercises) will be assigned Monday through Thursday nights.

Reference Materials

One of the objectives of this program is learning how to use registry coding manuals and other abstracting tools. To actively participate in the exercises, you will need the following books:

·       Cancer Registry CASEbook, Volumes I and II.  A copy of these books will be given to each student.

·       International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, third edition (ICD-O-3).  Hardcover ICD-O-3 may be ordered Amazon.com.  (Alternatively you may request a free soft cover edition of ICD-O-3 at the training program.)

·       Collaborative Stage (CS) Data Collection System Coding Instructions (version 02.04). The CS version 02.04 manual is electronic—it is intended to be used on your computer desktop.  The complete electronic manual is available from http://www.cancerstaging.org/cstage/manuals/coding0204.html.  You do not need to bring this manual with you. Students will be provided with schemas for the cases we cover in class. 

·       *AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, seventh edition, American Joint Committee on Cancer, 2009. The AJCC manual may be ordered from any bookstore or medical library (ISBN 0-387-95271-3), or directly from the publisher.  A limited number of copies are available as loaners for the duration of the training program. Please contact us to reserve a loaner copy.

·       Multiple Primaries and Histology Coding Rules (2007 with updates).  The complete document is available on the SEER website.  You can also download the rules in various formats at our free registry tools page.

·       2012 Hematopoietic and Lymphoid Neoplasm Case Reportability and Coding Manual and Hematopoietic Database, version 2.1.  The complete document is available on the SEER website.

·       *Summary Staging Guide 2000. A limited number of free copies of this manual will be available at the training program.

·       Medical dictionary.  If you have limited knowledge of medical terminology, we suggest that you bring the medical dictionary of your choice.

* These references may be borrowed for the duration of the training program; however students are encouraged to bring their own copy if they have one so notes may be made in margins for future reference.

Attention laptop users:  The CS coding instructions, Multiple Primaries and Histology Coding Rules, 2012 Hematopoietic and Lymphoid Neoplasm Case Reportability and Coding Manual and Hematopoietic Database, and Summary Staging Guide 2000 are available in electronic format.  You are encouraged to download these documents to a laptop and bring the laptop for use in the class.  If you are bringing a laptop, please check the applicable block on the registration form.

Other materials will be provided during the training program.

Faculty

• April Fritz, BA, RHIT, CTR - April developed the first version of the Principles of Oncology training program in 1992 and is lead instructor for all courses. 
   

• Louanne Currence, RHIT, CTR - Louanne joins A.Fritz and Associates as a co-instructor for the Principles of Oncology program, having more than a decade of experience teaching basic courses in health information management programs

Course Content

Endorsements

Cancellations