Quality assessment of pathologic data in cancer registry centers based on ICD-O-3

BACKGROUND: Prerequisite for achieving the goals of the registration program is the existence of valid and accurate data, and the usability of this data is possible if they are coded correctly. This study assets the quality of pathological data of the population-based cancer registration centers based on ICD-O-3. METHODS: This applied study was performed descriptively and retrospectively. The study population included 20129 pathology reports sent to the population-based cancer registration center of Mazandaran Province during 2018-2020. A total of 2015 out of, 2050 samples of the received reports were examined according to stratified random sampling method. A researcher checklist was made to collect the data, and STATA 13 and Cohen's Kappa agreement coefficient were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Among the 2015 reports of pathology, 1114 (55.3%) pathology reports were related to government centers, (42.9%) 865 cases were registered with their topographic code, morphology and behavior. Based on the registration of the exact topographic code, the kappa coefficient and the total agreement were 0.266 and 27.70%, respectively. Kappa coefficient in all received reports and reports with topographic code was 0.346 and 0.906, respectively. In the reports with topographic code, the most reports of cancers were related to cancers of the gastrointestinal organs (97.6%) 246. CONCLUSION: The accuracy of the codes given in the pathology centers in terms of topographic, morphological, behavioral and grade codes based on the percentage of agreement with the coding was above average, which were higher in governmental centers and also in some cancers.