Improving Recurrence Data Collection: Highlights from the 2026 SEER Symposium

November 2, 2026 Subscribe

The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program hosted A Special One-Day SEER Symposium: Improving the Quality of Recurrence Data Collection through Cancer Registrar Focused Education on May 9, 2026, in Louisville, Kentucky. Held following the annual National Cancer Registrars Association (NCRA) conference, the symposium brought together more than 90 attendees for a focused program on the identification and abstraction of cancer recurrence.

Designed by SEER, the symposium provided cancer registrars with information and practical guidance to support accurate and consistent collection of recurrence data. Sessions focused on bladder, breast, colon, and prostate cancers and brought together clinicians and Oncology Data Specialists (ODS)-Certified cancer registrars to examine recurrence from both the clinical and registry perspectives.

Understanding How Cancer Recurrence Is Identified

Identifying recurrence in the medical record can require registrars to bring together information from multiple sources. Recurrence may be documented through imaging, pathology, laboratory findings, clinical assessments, or other information collected during a patient's care.

The symposium examined how recurrence is typically diagnosed in clinical settings and the types of documentation that can help registrars determine when recurrence has occurred. Presenters discussed sources such as progress notes, treatment notes, operative reports, pathology reports, imaging reports, and tumor board documentation.

The program also included an overview of recurrence data collection and new recurrence-related data items, providing a broader context for the site-specific sessions that followed.

Connecting Clinical and Registry Perspectives

For each of the four cancer sites covered during the symposium, presentations paired a clinician's perspective with an ODS-certified registrar's approach to abstraction.

Clinicians discussed how recurrence may present, how it is evaluated, and how clinical decisions are documented in the medical record. ODS-certified presenters then considered the same issues from the cancer registrar's perspective, including how to interpret clinical terminology, identify relevant documentation, and address common abstraction challenges.

Interactive discussions and question-and-answer sessions gave participants an opportunity to work through questions about recurrence documentation and coding.

Exploring Recurrence Data Collection in Practice

The symposium also highlighted work underway to better understand and collect recurrence information at the population level. A presentation on the Utah Cancer Registry Recurrence Project provided an example of recurrence data collection in a central cancer registry.

Additional presentations focused on the Recurrence Integration Database (RID) project, including its fully automated methods and preliminary findings. Presentations on the RID process and results offered attendees a look at ongoing efforts to examine how recurrence events can be identified by aggregating information from data sources already available to registries, such as hospital abstracts, pathology reports, medical and pharmacy claims, and death certificates.

Together, these sessions connected the practical work of recurrence abstraction with broader efforts to assess approaches to recurrence data collection.

Participant Feedback

Evaluation results showed strong satisfaction with the symposium, reported learning gains, and positive feedback on the quality of the presentations. Participants particularly valued the opportunity to hear from both clinicians and cancer registrars and to consider how clinical documentation translates into registry abstraction.

The symposium's more than 90 attendees also reflected the interest within the cancer registry community in recurrence data collection and in educational opportunities focused on this area.

Accessing Symposium Materials

For those who were unable to attend, as well as attendees who would like to revisit the sessions, recordings and presentation files from the symposium are available online.

Visit the SEER Recurrence Data Collection Symposium webpage to access the materials and learn more.