Surg Prim Site (ROADS)

Field Length:  2

When therapy type = S, the Surgery at Primary Site code indicates a definitive surgical treatment for this cancer. Enter the two digit code to indicate the specific surgical procedure performed at the primary cancer site. These codes are listed in Appendix G - Surgery Codes - ROADS. They are site specific codes, as taken from the ACoS Registry Operations and Data Standards Manual, revised for 1998. This data item applies only to cancers diagnosed before 2003. (Surgeries performed on patients diagnosed after 1/1/2003 are recorded in data item 50100.)

Use the following guidelines to complete this field:

Only record surgeries of the primary site. Surgery to remove regional tissue or organs is coded in this field only if the tissue/organs are removed with the primary site as part of a specified code definition or in an en bloc resection. An en bloc resection is the removal of organs in one piece at one time.

Example: When a patient has a modified radical mastectomy, since the breast and axillary contents are removed in one piece (en bloc), surgery of primary site is coded as a modified radical mastectomy (50) even if the pathology finds no nodes in the specimen.

The range of codes from 10-79 are hierarchical and supersede codes '80', '90', and '99'. If more than one code describes the procedure, use the numerically higher code. If surgery was previously done, code the total result of that surgery with the current surgery. Biopsies that remove all gross tumor or leave only microscopic margins should be coded as surgery to the primary site.

If there was no surgical procedure at the primary site, code 00.