CAP releases updated Electronic Cancer Checklists

The College of American Pathologists (CAP) have released new versions of the CAP electronic Cancer Checklists (CAP eCC), the XML version of the updated CAP Cancer Checklists.  The CAP eCC is a tool used to enhance and advance cancer reporting.

In addition to the XML version, designed for use by computer software to foster standardization and interoperability, the cancer protocols many be found in PDF form on the CAP website.

The amount of information pathologists provide in their reports on cancer specimens has increased in recent years, due to the expansion of scientific knowledge about cancer and continued advances in healthcare, such as molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine.

"A new cancer diagnosis profoundly affects a patient's life. A generation ago, a patient's cancer pathology diagnosis was often just a few lines long,” said John Madden, MD, PhD, FCAP, associate professor of pathology at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C. and co-chair of the CAP’s Pathology Electronic Reporting Task Force. “With the current explosion of knowledge about cancer, the pathology diagnosis now often extends to multiple pages, and incorporates individualized information about literally dozens of critical tumor features, including the molecular and genetic characteristics of the patient's cancer, that play a major role in determining treatment success.”

The CAP Cancer Protocols and Checklists, developed by the CAP Cancer Committee, aid pathologists in cancer reporting and are recognized as a “gold standard” in cancer case summary reporting. The synoptic, or standardized, checklist format provides consistent and meaningful information that enable healthcare professionals to manage and study clinical data necessary to help improve patient care.

Among all the clinical uses to which these checklists can be put, they are invaluable in comparing diagnoses in clinical trials, by providing a standard and quantifiable way for a diagnosis to be recorded.