Tumor Registry

Tracking Tobacco Use in the Tumor Registry

Most cancer or tumor registries include discrete fields documenting tobacco use. Updating tobacco use status and tobacco treatment delivery in the tumor registry can help keep the cancer care team apprised of patient engagement and progress and can trigger tobacco treatment.

Because Registrars extract data on tobacco use from the EHR, it is important to:

• Regularly document tobacco use status in the EHR (see Screening Workflows & Tools)
• Develop coding guidance and discrete data elements in the registry to capture tobacco use history, status, and treatment.
• Consider integrating registry data and claims data to improve identification and treatment of patients who use tobacco (Gallaway et al., 2019)

Programs can also integrate review of tobacco use in tumor board meetings to trigger treatment planning. One C3I program (see Case Study H) adopted two new variables to track tobacco treatment delivery in the tumor registry – one to track medications prescribed (e.g., varenicline, bupropion, combination NRT) and one to track behavioral support delivery (e.g., on-site provider-delivered counseling, quitline referral, text referral, combination).

Relevant Publications:

• Krebs P, Rogers E, Greenspan A, Goldfeld K, Lei L, Ostroff JS, Garrett BE, Momin B, Henley SJ. Utility of Using Cancer Registry Data to Identify Patients for Tobacco Treatment Trials. J Registry Manag. 2019 Summer;46(2):30-36. PMID: 32010425; PMCID: PMC6993933.
• LeLaurin JH, Gurka MJ, Chi X, Lee JH, Hall J, Warren GW, Salloum RG. Concordance Between Electronic Health Record and Tumor Registry Documentation of Smoking Status Among Patients with Cancer. JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics. 2021 May;5:518-26.
• Siegel DA, Henley SJ, Wike JM, Ryerson AB, Johnson CJ, Rees JR, Pollack LA. Enhancement of NPCR for Comparative Effectiveness Research Team. Capture of Tobacco Use Among Population‐based Registries: Findings From 10 National Program of Cancer Registries States. Cancer. 2018 Jun 1;124(11):2381-9.