A primer on molecular biology for certified tumor registrars

Certified tumor registrars (CTRs) are expected to have expertise in cancer staging, treatment, and patient followup and an overall knowledge of the cancer disease process. As medicine becomes more personalized, the prognosis for individual cancer patients is beginning to include more molecular markers, and CTRs are being asked to record these results along with traditional anatomic information about the disease. Molecular markers, also called biomarkers, are measured using a variety of techniques, including fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), immunohistochemistry (IHC), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). This primer will provide an overview of these techniques so that CTRs can more efficiently search medical records for information and more accurately record these data items into abstracting templates.