Mapping of ICD-O Tuples to OncoTree Codes Using SNOMED CT Post-Coordination

Around 500,000 oncological diseases are diagnosed in Germany every year which are documented using the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O). Apart from this, another classification for oncology, OncoTree, is often used for the integration of new research findings in oncology. For this purpose, a semi-automatic mapping of ICD-O tuples to OncoTree codes was developed. The implementation uses a FHIR terminology server, pre-coordinated or post-coordinated SNOMED CT expressions, and subsumption testing. Various validations have been applied. The results were compared with reference data of scientific papers and manually evaluated by a senior pathologist, confirming the applicability of SNOMED CT in general and its post-coordinated expressions in particular as a viable intermediate mapping step. Resulting in an agreement of 84,00 % between the newly developed approach and the manual mapping, it becomes obvious that the present approach has the potential to be used in everyday medical practice.