How do you assign tumor registry accession numbers?

Answer 1

At most State Tumor Registries, accession numbers are assigned serially, as the reports come in, and currently number in the millions in some states. At hospital tumor registries, the first 4 digits of the accession number is the year the patient was first seen AT THAT FACILITY for cancer or a benign reportable tumor; the remaining digits are assigned serially. Note that the accession number does not contain information about the YEAR OF DIAGNOSIS of cancer. Thus, the first cancer patient in 2005 at Hospital A received accession number 2005-00001. If the same patient returned to Hospital A in 2007 with new tumors, the accession number would be 2005-n (where n is the next number in the 2005 accession series). I could not be determined from this information, however, when this patient was first diagnosed with cancer. If the same patient went to Hospital B for the first time in 2007, that hospital would assign its own accession number beginning with 2007-.