Wiki Oncology diagnosis

[lorismack]

I would appreciate some feed-back on the following question. For a patient that was previously diagnosed with a malignancy, at what point does the diagnosis change from malignant neoplasm of _______ to a personal history of malignant neoplasm of _______ (V codes)?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[btadlock1]

ICD-9 coding conventions (Section I, Chapter 18, paragraph d. 4) History of... ) say that personal history codes explain a past condition that no longer exists, and is not receiving any current treatment, but has the potential for recurrence.

Chapter 2, section d says " When a primary malignancy has been previously excised or eradicated from its site and no further treatment is directed to that site, and there is no evidence of existing primary malignancy, a code from V10, Personal History of Malignant Neoplasm, should be used to indicate the former site of the malignancy. Any mention of extension, invasion, or metastasis to another site is coded as a secondary malignant neoplasm to that site. The secondary site may be the principal (1st listed) diagnosis, with the V10 code used as a secondary code.