Data Sets for the Reporting of Tumors of the Central Nervous System: Recommendations From The International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting

* Context.--Standards for pathology reporting of cancer are foundational to national and international benchmarking, epidemiology, and clinical trials, with international standards for pathology reporting of cancer being undertaken through the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR). Objective.--To develop standardized templates for brain tumor diagnostic pathology reporting. Design.--As a response to the 2016 updated 4th edition of the WHO (World Health Organization) Classification of Tumours of the Central Nervous System (2016 CNS WHO), an expert ICCR committee developed data sets to facilitate reporting of brain tumors that are classified histologically and molecularly by the 2016 CNS WHO; as such, this represents the first combined histologic and molecular ICCR data set, and required a novel approach with 3 highly related data sets that should be used in an integrated manner. Results.--The current article and accompanying ICCR Web site describe reporting data sets for central nervous system tumors in the hope that they provide easy-to-use and highly reproducible means to issue diagnostic reports in consort with the 2016 CNS WHO. Conclusions.--The consistent use of these templates will undoubtedly prove useful for patient care, clinical trials, epidemiologic studies, and monitoring of neuro-oncologic care around the world. (Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2020;144:196-206; doi: 10.5858/arpa.2018-0565-OA)
The value of a structured or synoptic approach to cancer reporting, leading to improvement in the quality and completeness of pathology cancer reports, has been recognized through many studies (1-4) [...]