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  • 1.  API Transition

    Posted 02-06-2020 11:59 AM

    January 2020

    Cancer Surveillance Community and Cancer Registry Software Vendors:

    For the past several years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created and maintained software in the form of a dynamic link library (DLL) to help cancer registries collect data on stage of disease for cancers according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Cancer Staging System. Content from AJCC's Cancer Staging System was licensed for use in the development of this software named the Cancer Staging API. This tool is made available by the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and licensed, through the AJCC, to cancer registry software companies to incorporate into their commercial products. The ownership and maintenance of this API will transition to the AJCC, a program of the American College of Surgeons, beginning January 2020. This transition will bring future development closer to the source of content as AJCC moves forward with updates to the Cancer Staging System.

    The AJCC and CDC will continue to work closely together over the transition period. As a long-time partner of the AJCC, the CDC is committed to a smooth handover process and has already begun providing documentation, training, and expertise to ensure a successful transition of the API.

    Going forward, the Cancer Staging API developed by the CDC will be referred to as the AJCC Cancer Surveillance API. This is both to indicate the new ownership and distinguish this tool from the AJCC API developed for clinical care that is licensed and used by electronic health record vendors at point of care. The AJCC Cancer Surveillance API will continue to include content to support collection of Summary Stage 2018 and EOD to provide vendors with a single tool for collection of stage data. Access to the API by and for NPCR registries will not change.

    During the transition, the AJCC will provide periodic updates to the cancer registry vendors and surveillance community. To subscribe to these communications, please register for "The Brief" newsletter from the Cancer Programs of the American College of Surgeon here. Additionally, an FAQ page will be added to the AJCC and Cancer Programs website in the coming weeks. Until then, please contact the AJCC at ajcc@facs.org with questions or support requests for the API.