Pathology Laboratory Guidelines

1. Your facility is required to report cancer cases if:
   1. Your facility processes one of the following specimen types:  anatomic, cytology, bone marrow, or autopsy.
   2. Your facility is a hospital pathology laboratory providing services to non-hospital health care providers such as freestanding surgery centers, dermatologists, etc. Your facility’s tumor registrar does NOT report these cases.
   3. Your facility is a private lab providing services to Missouri clients.
2. Pathology laboratories meeting the above criteria must start reporting prostate and melanoma cases diagnosed and/or treated in non-hospital settings*, beginning with January 2005 cases.
3. The information may be submitted on individual hard copies. Pathology laboratories wanting to transfer the data electronically should contact the Missouri Cancer Registry.
4. The pathology reports must be submitted at least quarterly.  Monthly submissions are acceptable.
5. In addition to the standard diagnostic information, each pathology report must include patient name, and at least one of the following patient identifiers listed in order of importance:
   1. Social security number
   2. Date of birth
   3. Address
6. The pathology report must include the name of the referring physician and the referring facility.
7. Pathology laboratories may voluntarily submit reports for patients having diagnostic or treatment procedures in non-hospital settings with any type of cancer.  Eventually, this will be mandatory. 

*This includes freestanding surgery centers, dermatologists and other physician offices (family practice, internist, surgeon, etc.), and other freestanding cancer treatment facilities, etc.

For further information, please contact the Missouri Cancer Registry and Research Center.