NCCN No Longer Requires Imaging for Stage IIa Melanoma Patients

"March 14, 2011 (Hollywood, Florida) — The 2011 updated National Comprehensive Cancer Center (NCCN) guidelines for melanoma say that routine imaging is no longer required for stage IIa melanoma patients who have negative lymph nodes.
"We do not recommend a [computed tomography] scan for these patients. They don't have to have it. We have decided that there is no compromise in their care," committee chair Daniel G. Coit, MD, professor of medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, told Medscape Medical News here at the NCCN 16th Annual Conference.
"It's a category 2a recommendation, meaning that there was general agreement among the committee but very little data in the form of prospective randomized trials."
Stage IIa melanoma patients are those with melanomas between 2 and 4 mm thick and no lymph node involvement."
--Medscape

Chart to convert Gy to cGy in Radiation Treatment

http://www.aqua-calc.com/convert/radiation-absorbed-dose/gray-to-centigray

Environment and Breast Cancer

This website showcases a project looking into the environment and the development of breast cancer:
http://erbc.vassar.edu/

Advance Magazine

Here is a wonderful article on the new Class of Case requirements. Included in the article is a link to click on that will give you a quick reference diagram to follow when figuring out class of case:
http://health-information.advanceweb.com/Columns/Registry-Perspectives/A-Simple-Paradigm-for-Assigning-Class-of-Case.aspx

Cancer Treatment Website

This website is a wonderful resource for basic understanding of various types of cancer, cancer staging, and treatment. It also contains the latest news highlights concerning cancer.
http://www.cancertreatment.net/

Understand Lymphoma

Here is an excellent site that will increase your knowledge of lymphoma and aid in coding of this disease. The link below is to videos available at the site:
http://www.lymphomainfo.net/videos

Social Security Death Index Terms

Ever wonder if you can use "State Issued" "Last Residence" or "Last Benefit" to code the place of death? The answer to all three is NO.  None of these fields will tell you for certain the place of death.

This website will help in defining the different terms used.
http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/ssdi/fields.html