On Capturing Radiological Diagnoses of Brain Tumors to Provide Complete Population Data in Cancer Registries in...

Nonmalignant brain tumors are underreported by an estimated 60% in Canadian cancer registries. One explanation is that radiology facilities or their databases may not be adequately included in the cancer reporting infrastructure. A multidisciplinary stakeholder team met for 1 day, followed by teleconferences, to discuss the evidence for the importance of incorporating radiology diagnoses in brain tumor reports. A role for the neuroradiologist was delineated in brain tumor diagnosis and in ensuring that radiology report information is available to support cancer case ascertainment in the cancer surveillance system. It was noted that brain tumors identified through imaging are clinically managed depending on the diagnosis and prognosis of the disease, and that patient radiology reports become a part of a larger administrative information system. The proportion of nonmalignant brain tumors diagnosed using histology is lower in the United States (49.3%) than in Canada (59%), suggesting that a higher proportion of cases with nonhistologic (likely radiology) diagnosis are captured by the US system (eg, tumors of the sellar region, cranial and spinal tumors, and tumors of the meninges). Finding a way to use existing electronic radiology reports to identify nonmalignant brain tumors needs to be prioritized. This will require access to electronic radiology reports, as manual reporting is impractical. Once access is achieved, an electronic flag to identify new cases through a natural language processing algorithm could be pursued. As radiologists and cancer registrars become more familiar with each other's mandates and workflow demands, innovative and collaborative solutions to improve case ascertainment for brain and other cancers are likely to emerge.