Seer Ctr - Operations Exam Questions With Verified Answers Latest Update 2026

SEER CTR - OPERATIONS EXAM QUESTIONS WITH VERIFIED ANSWERS LATEST UPDATE 2026 Examples of population-based registries are A. National Cancer Data Base. B. Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States (CBTRUS). C. Both (a) and (b) D. Neither (a) nor (b) - Answers D. Neither (a) nor (b) Examples of nonanalytic cases for a typical hospital registry include A. Autopsy only cases. B. Cases diagnosed elsewhere and provided only palliative care in lieu of first course treatment at your facility. C. Both (a) and (b) D. Neither (a) nor (b) - Answers A. Autopsy only cases. Non-analytic cases for a facility are defined as cases who were diagnosed and received all of first course therapy elsewhere prior to the date of referral to the facility. These cases include patients treated for recurrence or progression of disease only, patients for whom the facility provided only a treatment plan or a second opinion regarding the diagnosis and/or treatment options available, as well as patients diagnosed at autopsy, per death certificate, or who only had pathology slides read at the facility. Analytic cases - Answers those cases that were diagnosed at the reporting hospital/ facility or received any first course treatment at facility class of case 00-22 Which organization provides the guidelines used by central registries to determine the residence of the patient at the time of diagnosis? A. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program B. National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) C. U.S. Postal Service D. U.S. Census Bureau - Answers D. U.S. Census Bureau Rules must also be established to determine who the members of that population are. The goal is to have the central registry use the same rules to establish a patient's residency at the time of diagnosis as the rules used by the Census Bureau in counting the population. In addition, a population-based registry must have rules for determining residency of part-time residents, prisoners, institutionalized persons, homeless persons, military personnel, and students. Updating casefinding programs that use either the ICD-9-CM or ICD-10-CM disease indices to identify potential reportable cases should be done annually and made effective for admissions during which month? A. January B. June C. October D. December - Answers C. October Updates to the ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM coding manuals are done annually in October. Codes from these manuals are used to generate a disease index that identifies the diseases and conditions diagnosed in patients. To ensure that all reportable cases are included in the disease index requested from facilities, it is important to review and update required codes needed by the registry on an annual basis. Casefinding timeliness in a central registry is determined by the A. Planned use of the data. B. Agency(ies) to which the central registry reports. C. Both (a) and (b) D. Neither (a) nor (b) - Answers C. Both (a) and (b) The time frame for casefinding and reporting for central registries is determined by both the planned use of the data and the agency to which the central registry reports. The purpose of central registry death clearance activities is A. To update mortality and other information on cases that exist in the registry database. B. To be used as a casefinding source. C. Both (a) and (b) D. Neither (a) nor (b) - Answers C. Both (a) and (b) Death clearance is referred to as the use of mortality files to update death and other missing information on cases that exist in the registry database and to increase incidence reporting completeness by using these files as a casefinding source. What organization(s) obtain death certificates from governmental vital statistics agencies for the purpose of identifying missed incidence cases? A. Central registries B. Hospital registries C. Both (a) and (b) D. Neither (a) nor (b) - Answers A. Central registries What is the correct order in which pre-abstracting activities are performed? A. Identify potential reportable cases; determine whether the case is a new or separate primary; and gather source documents B. Gather source documents; determine whether the case is a new or separate primary; and conduct quality control on the data C. Determine whether the case is a new or separate primary; gather the source documents; and conduct quality control on the data D. Identify potential reportable cases;gather source documents and determine whether the case is a new or separate primary - Answers D. D. Identify potential reportable cases;gather source documents and determine whether the case is a new or separate primary What are the data quality characteristics of a cancer registry? A. Monitoring, completeness and timeliness B. Accuracy, timeliness and monitoring C. Monitoring, accuracy and completeness D. Accuracy, timeliness and completeness - Answers D. Accuracy, timeliness and completeness Generally, abstracted data is classified into five groups. In which group would each of the following be classified: 1) diagnostic confirmation, 2) class of case, and 3) date of first recurrence? A. 1) Cancer identification, 2) patient identification and 3) outcomes B. 1) Outcomes, 2) patient identification and 3) cancer identification C. 1) Cancer identification, 2) cancer identification, and 3) cancer identification D. 1) Cancer identification, 2) cancer identification and 3) outcomes - Answers D. 1) Cancer identification, 2) cancer identification and 3) outcomes Patient identification fields include: - Answers accession number, sequence number, social security number, race, sex, date of birth, geographic location, physicians and institutions involved in the care of the patient. Cancer identification fields include: - Answers class of case, date of initial diagnosis, primary site, histology, behavior code, grade, diagnostic confirmation. Stage of disease at diagnosis fields include - Answers data items that identify, confirm and support the assigned stage of disease: AJCC clinical and pathologic TNM elements, Site specific data items (SSDI) Summary Stage 2018 Collaborative Stage (CS) data elements. First course of treatment fields include - Answers specific treatment modalities (palliative procedures, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, immunotherapy, hematologic transplants and endocrine procedures) and dates each was provided. Outcome data items include - Answers date of last contact or death, vital status, cancer status, following registry, follow-up source, next follow-up source, date of first recurrence, and type of first recurrence. What resource(s) is used by CoC accredited hospital registries as the basis of the data collection effort for their facility? A. International Classification of Disease for Oncology (ICD-O), 3rd Edition B. SEER Coding and Staging Manual C. Standards for Oncology Registry Entery (STORE) D. Neither (a) nor (b) - Answers D. Neither (a) nor (b) The Standards for Oncology Registry Entry(STORE) manual is the basis of the data collection efforts for all Commission on Cancer (CoC) accredited cancer programs. What statement(s) is true regarding an accession number? A. A patient is assigned an accession number for each primary treated at a given facility. B. If a patient is an analytic case for the same primary at more than one facility, the patient has the same accession number at all facilities. C. A patient is only assigned one accession number regardless of the number of primaries reported from the facility. D. None of the above - Answers C. A patient is only assigned one accession number regardless of the number of primaries reported from the facility. Why does the Department of Health and Human Services support the coding change from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM? A. The content in ICD-9-CM is no longer clinically accurate and the number of available codes is limited and has been maxed out for some categories. B. In 2013 the United States moved to ICD-10 for mortality (death certificate) coding so it will not be able to directly compare morbidity diagnosis data to state and national mortality data unless this change is adopted. C. Both (a) and (b) D. Neither (a) nor (b) - Answers A. The content in ICD-9-CM is no longer clinically accurate and the number of available codes is limited and has been maxed out for some categories. Combination codes such as 8523/3 (infiltrating duct mixed with other types of carcinoma) and 8524/3 (infiltrating lobular mixed with other types of carcinoma) are used when A. Two types of carcinomas are intermixed within one tumor. B. Two tumors exist in the same primary site - one tumor is infiltrating ductal and the other tumor is infiltrating lobular. C. Two tumors with the different histologies "overlap" each other (collision tumors). D. None of the above - Answers A. Two types of carcinomas are intermixed within one tumor. Histologic combination codes are intended to describe a single lesion containing multiple histologic types. Combination codes are not used to code multiple independent tumors of different histologic types arising in a single primary site. Which term is used by pathologists to describe a group of cells that can be seen only by a microscope? A. Focal tumor B. Tumor focus C. Overlapping tumor D. Contiguous tumor - Answers B. Tumor focus Which is the term used to describe tumor limited to one specific area or organ A. Focal tumor B. Tumor focus C. Overlapping tumor D. Contiguous tumor - Answers A. Focal tumor term used to describe overlapping tumor involves adjacent sites (next to each other) and the tumor is contiguous or invades, or bridges adjacent sites or subsites.. A. Focal tumor B. Tumor focus C.Overlapping/Contiguous tumor - Answers C. Overlapping/Contiguous tumor Which MP/H rule(s) apply to "recurrent" tumors? A. The MP/H rules regarding the interpretation of recurrence has priority over a pathologist's results after comparing current tumor and the original tumor. B. Use a physician's statement to decide whether the patient has a recurrence of a previous cancer or a new primary. C. Both (a) and (b) D. Neither (a) nor (b) - Answers D. Neither (a) nor (b) multiple primary rules must be used to determine the number of primaries when the term recurrence is stated in the record unless a pathologist compares the present tumor to the original tumor and states that the present tumor is a recurrence of cancer from the previous primary. In the latter situation, the pathologist's opinion has priority over the MP/H rules in determining the number of primaries to report. During the creation of the MP/H rules, the data quality issue(s) identified was A. Determining the number of primary sites when a patient's medical record is incomplete. B. Choosing the correct histology code when multiple descriptive terms for a tumor exist in a pathology report. C. Both (a) and (b) D. Neither (a) nor (b) - Answers C. Both (a) and (b) Addressing both of these issues in the MP/H rules was important in order to improve data quality and consistency in how registrars determined incidence in central registries and identified individual cancers in facility-based registries. The Solid Tumor Rules rules state that when there is more than one pathology report, use the report from the most representative specimen. The most representative specimen is A. The specimen from the most extensive surgery. B. The specimen with the most specific diagnosis. C. The specimen with the greatest amount of tumor. D. None of the above - Answers B. The Specimen with the most specific diagnosis. Solid Tumor Rules instruct one to code the most specific histology (whether from a biopsy or resection) when more than one pathology report is available. Solid Tumor Rules replaced: A. MP/H rules B. Grade rules C. AJCC Staging D. Collaborate Staging - Answers A. MP/H rules What type of AJCC staging classification prefix is assigned at the time of diagnosis, before treatment? A. y clinical (yc) B. y pathologic (yp) C. Both (a) and (b) D. Neither (a) nor (b) - Answers D. Neither (a) nor (b) The definitions for the AJCC staging classification prefixes are: c (Clinical) - Assigned at the time of diagnosis and before treatment. yc (y Clinical) - Assigned after systemic/radiation therapy of neoadjuvant and before surgery. p (Pathologic) - Assigned after completion of definitive surgery. yp (y Pathologic) - Assigned post neoadjuvant therapy systemic and/or radiation therapy and surgery. a (Autopsy) - Assigned at the time of the incidental finding on a postmortem examination. r (Retreatment) - Assigned at the time of recurrence after a disease-free interval. Which statement(s) regarding stage is true? A. Pathologic staging includes information obtained through clinical staging plus the results from surgery. B. Restaging a case is uncommon. C. Both (a) and (b) D. Neither (a) nor (b) - Answers C. Both (a) and (b) -Clinical staging assesses the extent of disease based on the physical examination, scans and biopsies of affected areas. -Pathologic staging combines the assessment of the extent of disease based on the surgical removal of the malignancy or exploratory surgical findings and the clinical findings. -Restaging is used to determine the extent of disease should the malignancy recur following the completion of treatment. It is done prior to considering options to treat the disease. Restaging is not a common practice. How many main stage groups exist in the Summary Staging 2018 classification system? A. 3 B. 4 C. 6 D. 9 - Answers C. 6