ListServ

Sent on behalf of Joe Rogers

Date:                   August 17, 2023         

To:                       NAACCR List Serv           

From:                  Joseph D. Rogers, M.S.

              Team Lead: Informatics, Data Science, and Applications Team

                             National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR)

                             Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, NCCDPHP, CDC

Subject:              Release of CDC NPCR's NorthCon 24 Record Converter

We are very pleased to announce that CDC's National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) has released a new version of the NorthCon record converter program. NorthCon24.exe, a freestanding program for Microsoft Windows, converts files of cancer registry records from NAACCR 23 to NAACCR 24, which are data formats prescribed by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR). Input files should conform to NAACCR version 23 XML. Converted output files will contain records in NAACCR version 24 XML. This new version is available at:  https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/npcr/tools/registryplus/up.htm.

This initial release of NorthCon 24 includes the nconv24.dll, which can be used to perform conversion with a program other than NorthCon24.exe. After installation, nconv24.dll can be found in the same directory in which you installed NorthCon23.exe.

Once you install NorthCon240, a file called Conversion to NAACCR v24.docx, will be saved to the Documentation folder within the NorthCon V24 application folder. This document provides instructions for creating user dictionaries and includes detailed information regarding the conversion specifications.

NorthCon24.exe performs the following conversions as specified in NAACCR's 2024 Implementation Guidelines and Recommendations :

• Conversions related to staging and schema for cases diagnosed on or after January 1, 2018. 

• Sets Staging API Versions Current rather than calling to the latest AJCC Cancer Surveillance DLL to update the current version data items.
• Enables grouping of tumors by Patient ID when the input file is sorted by Patient ID.
• Manual review is not necessary for conversion to NAACCR v24.
• The NAACCR Record Version [item 50] value is set to '240' in each converted record.

Note: If a user dictionary is not needed to convert data from NAACCR version 23 to 24, the NorthCon24.exe.config,H found within the NorthCon V24 directory, will need to be updated to remove the LocalDictionary definition.

It is recommended v23 edits be run and errors corrected prior to running the conversion.

For more information about this NPCR utility, please visit our utility programs web page: https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/npcr/tools/registryplus/up.htm

Please Note: NorthCon 230 is still available on the webpage at the bottom of the page under Converting Previous Versions.

Please send all issues or support questions directly to the Helpdesk at cancerinformatics@cdc.gov.

Please share this information with other members of your team, as appropriate.

Thank you,

Joe