The International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR) produces common, internationally validated and evidence-based pathology datasets for cancer reporting for use throughout the world, through broad collaboration between Pathology Colleges, Societies and major cancer organisations internationally.
Global standardisation of pathology information on tumour classification, staging, prognostic and predictive information forms the basis for best practice in patient care and is a prerequisite for epidemiological research and benchmarking in cancer management both nationally and internationally.
Cancer patient outcomes are positively impacted by the ability of the medical team to build treatment and management options on accurate and complete information within the patients’ pathology reports.
Developing complete, evidence-based cancer datasets containing essential and current reporting information for a given cancer provides the foundation for improved cancer staging and optimisation of treatment.
The ICCR now has over sixty cancer datasets available for download.
Translating the ICCR datasets into numerous languages is essential to facilitate the implementation of standardised cancer reporting worldwide.
In particular, the ICCR is focused on bridging equity access to support pathologists practicing in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) to effectively communicate complete cancer pathology results to associated clinicians, cancer registrars and other secondary users, thus ultimately benefiting cancer patients globally.
Implementation of the ICCR datasets is crucial to their progression, integration and utilisation worldwide.
This will involve investigating structured reporting tools for LMICs, developing electronic versions of the ICCR Datasets for upload into Laboratory Information Systems (LIS), development of terminology to support analysis and comparison of data, quality assurance, oversight of implementation projects, and improving cancer registry interface standards.
In 2019, the International Association of Cancer Registries (IARC) endorsed the ICCR Datasets as the international standard for cancer pathology reporting.
ICCR datasets have enormous educational value for pathologists, oncologists, and other related medical professionals for training and professional development, as well as providing pathologists in LMICs with a benchmark and, therefore, a ‘ladder’ for progression and advancement in cancer reporting as their capability improves.
The ICCR aims to facilitate educational events such as Webinars for professional development, University and College lectures, outreach sessions, and conference presentations.