What process will the central cancer registry use to determine if two records are the same primary or two different primaries?

The process that a central cancer registry uses to determine if two records represent the same primary tumor or different primaries is known as tumor linkage. This involves analyzing various aspects of the tumor information, including characteristics such as the site, histology, behavior, and the timing of diagnosis. Tumor linkage is critical because it helps ensure accurate data collection by distinguishing between multiple primary tumors that may occur in the same patient over time and accurately representing their cancer history in the registry.

By employing tumor linkage, registries can prevent duplicate entries of the same cancer case and identify new, distinct cancer cases, which is essential for epidemiological studies, treatment outcomes analysis, and understanding the burden of cancer in populations. This method emphasizes the importance of tumor-specific data rather than just patient identifiers, focusing on the unique characteristics of the tumor to guide the determination of whether they are indeed separate entities.