California Cancer Reporting System Standards Volume I: Abstracting and Coding Procedures for Hospitals
For all population-based registries, it is essential to have accurate statistics on the occurrence of types of cancer in defined geographical areas. The main purpose of the address field, therefore, is to identify the patient's residence at the time the cancer was first diagnosed, not the patient's current address.
Every effort should be made to determine the correct address.
Rules for determining residency are based on those used by the U.S. Department of Commerce for the 1990 Census of Population.
It is important to follow the rules exactly, because the central registry uses automated data processing methods that reject non-standard entries. The data are used for grouping cases by geographic area.