Cancer Protocol Templates

The CAP Cancer Reporting Protocols provide guidelines for collecting the essential data elements for complete reporting of malignant tumors and optimal patient care.

The CAP Biomarker Reporting Protocols are intended to provide reporting guidance for commonly ordered biomarkers and are not required for accreditation purposes.

Scroll to the Cancer Reporting and Biomarker Reporting Protocols

2013-2018 Previous Versions Are Available Upon Request

© 2022 College of American Pathologists (CAP). All rights reserved.

The College of American Pathologists (CAP) does not permit reproduction of any substantial portion of these protocols without its written authorization. The CAP hereby authorizes use of these protocols by physicians and other health care providers in reporting on surgical specimens, in teaching, and in carrying out medical research for nonprofit purposes. This authorization does not extend to reproduction or other use of any substantial portion of these protocols for commercial purposes without the written consent of the CAP.

The CAP also authorizes physicians and other health care practitioners to make modified versions of the Protocols solely for their individual use in reporting on surgical specimens for individual patients, teaching, and carrying out medical research for non-profit purposes.

The CAP further authorizes the following uses by physicians and other health care practitioners, in reporting on surgical specimens for individual patients, in teaching, and in carrying out medical research for non-profit purposes: (1) Dictation from the original or modified protocols for the purposes of creating a text-based patient record on paper, or in a word processing document; (2) Copying from the original or modified protocols into a text-based patient record on paper, or in a word processing document; (3) The use of a computerized system for items (1) and (2), provided that the protocol data is stored intact as a single text-based document, and is not stored as multiple discrete data fields.

Other than uses (1), (2), and (3) above, the CAP does not authorize any use of the Protocols in electronic medical records systems, pathology informatics systems, cancer registry computer systems, computerized databases, mappings between coding works, or any computerized system without a written license from the CAP.

Any public dissemination of the original or modified protocols is prohibited without a written license from the CAP.

The Protocols include tumor staging data used with permission of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC), Chicago, Illinois. The original source for this information is the AJCC Cancer Staging System (2020).

The CAP developed these protocols as an educational tool to assist pathologists in the useful reporting of relevant information. It did not issue the protocols for use in litigation, reimbursement, or other contexts. Nevertheless, the CAP recognizes that the protocols might be used by hospitals, attorneys, payers, and others. Indeed, effective January 1, 2004, the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons mandated the use of the required data elements of the protocols as part of its Cancer Program Standards for Approved Cancer Programs. Therefore, it becomes even more important for pathologists to familiarize themselves with these documents. At the same time, the CAP cautions that use of the protocols other than for their intended educational purpose may involve additional considerations that are beyond the scope of this document.

The inclusion of a product name or service in a CAP publication should not be construed as an endorsement of such product or service, nor is failure to include the name of a product or service to be construed as disapproval.

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