Cancer Research Network

• Fallon Community Health Plan | Meyers Primary Care Institute
  Site PI: Kathleen Mazor
• Group Health Cooperative | Group Health Research Institute
  Site PI: Jessica Chubak
• Health Alliance Plan | Henry Ford Hospital & Health System
  Site PI: Christine Cole Johnson
• Kaiser Permanente Colorado | Institute for Health Research
  Site PI: Debra P. Ritzwoller
• Kaiser Permanente Hawaii | Center for Health Research
  Site PI: Stacey Honda
• Kaiser Permanente Northern California | Division of Research
  Site PI: Lawrence H. Kushi
• Kaiser Permanente Northwest | Center for Health Research
  Site PI: Mark C. Hornbrook
• Kaiser Permanente Southern California | Department of Research & Evaluation
  Site PI: Virginia P. Quinn

• Security Health Plan | Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation
  Site PI: Robert T. Greenlee

• Baylor Scott & White Healthcare | Division of Research
• Geisinger Health System |Center for Health Research and Rural Advocacy
• Harvard Pilgrim Health Care |Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Med School
• HealthPartners | HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research
• Kaiser Permanente Georgia | Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation
• Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic States | Mid Atlantic Permanente Research Institute

• Harvard Medical School – Collaborating PI: Deborah Schrag
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center  – Collaborating PI: Thomas Vaughan
• Roswell Park Cancer Institute – Collaborating PI: Christine B. Amrosone
• University of California, Davis – Collaborating PI: Diana L. Miglioretti
• VA Center for Implementation Practice and Research Support – Collaborating PI: Brian S. Mittman

These “look-up” tables were created by extracting codes from published research, NCI Web sites (e.g., Procedure Codes for SEER-Medicare Analyses), health plan formularies, and expert clinician opinion (e.g., medical oncologists, oncology clinical pharmacists). These tables contain over 8,000 NDC and 500 procedure cancer treatment-related codes. The tables are updated when new products or codes are identified. The codes are stratified by class of product (e.g., chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy) and code type (e.g., ICD-9, HCPCS). Please see the data dictionary below for definitions of classes. The lookup tables below were last updated on March 2018. Any newly assigned procedure codes, diagnosis codes, and NDC codes since that date are not included.

Caveats: Probably not every code in existence is present. Some of the drugs listed might be used in non-cancer settings. The class product may not be correct for all codes. There are codes for infusion additives that are pharmaceuticals but not drugs per se (e.g., D5W).

The radiation therapy lookup tables contain lists of procedure and diagnosis codes that may be used to identify receipt of radiation therapy. We have included information about the general purpose of the code and the type of radiation therapy that applies to the code. Please see the data dictionary for information about each variable in the lookup tables.The last update of the lookup tables was mid-2015 for procedures and April 2017 for diagnoses.

Please reference the Cancer Research Network (U24 CA171524) if you will be using or producing any reports or publications from these look-up tables.

** Now that the CRN is an unfunded consortium, site participation in data requests is voluntary and dependent upon programmer and investigator availability. **

The Prep-to-Research (PTR) Form should be reviewed, completed, and submitted by any investigator who wishes to obtain summary counts to help with a grant application. Please note that these data are provided only for preparatory to research purposes and should not be used without explicit permission from sites. They may contain proprietary information, therefore permission is needed from each contributing site to use that site’s numbers for any purpose including in a grant proposal, poster, or publication.

If this is your first time submitting a Prep-to-Research Form with the CRN, please review the Investigator Guide (PDF, 272 KB) before proceeding. The purpose of the Investigator Guide is to serve as an introduction for scientific investigators who wish to obtain and analyze CRN data.  

Once you have reviewed the guide, you may download (use Adobe to view this file) and complete the Preparatory-to-Research Form (PDF, 155KB).

• Requestor attaches the completed PTR Form in an email to: [email protected].
• The CRN will review the request with respect to feasibility, priority, effort, and consistency with CRN objectives.
• Depending on the nature of the request submitted, the CRN may require that investigators not affiliated with the CRN identify a CRN investigator who is interested in collaborating on the project before completing the data request.
• CRN programmer works with the requestor to clarify request, if necessary, and share results when complete.

While data are collected and maintained independently by each CRN Site, a system of data standards and automated processes known as the Virtual Data Warehouse (VDW) has been established to facilitate consistent data analysis across the network.

The CRN Cancer Counter is a data utility which generates frequencies and cross-tabulations of the number of primary tumors by selected individual and tumor characteristics extracted from the Tumor Registry files maintained by CRN health plans.  Variables included in the Cancer Counter are as follows:  a) SEER site recode of tumor site (computed from ICD-O primary site and histology data fields); b) Tumor Behavior; c) General Summary Stage; d) AJCC Stage; e) Age at Cancer Diagnosis; f) Year Cancer Diagnosed; g) Patient Race; h) Patient Gender; i) Patient Hispanic Ethnicity; j) Patient’s Vital Status (as of date of most recent update of the Tumor Registry); and, k) Health Plan (identities of individual health plans are masked).  Patient aged 90 years and above are grouped together.

As of Aug, 2017, the counter contains information on 1,632,787 tumors, spanning 1960-2015!