FIELD E ; Tamor Code 



Columns 18, 19, 20, 21, 



22, 23, 24, and 25 



which a tumor originated to provide for the relatively few occasions when it is different from the 

 organism coded in Field J. The CBCC assumes that the organism in which the tumor is grown at the 

 time of the chemical test has been demonstrated to be a satisfactory one, else it should not have been 

 used for the test; assuming this, the information about the species origin of the tumor, when different 

 from the organism in Field J, occurs too infrequently to justify reserving coding space on the IBM 

 punched card for it. 



Plant structures are so different from animal structures that a separate group of organ symbols 

 is provided for them in constructing tumor symbols, since data on chemical treatment of plant galls 

 (tumors) do occur. These symbols for plant structures are all assigned Symbol S as a first unit, with 

 the second and third units (Part II of the symbol) representing the specific structure. For example, 

 S S6 is a tumor (gall) of a plant leaf . 



The coding of the anatomical origin of specific tumors, indicated by units two and three of 

 the tumor symbol, does not duplicate entries in Field H-l. In the case of tumor test data, coding the 

 site of the tumor in Field H-l is restricted to recording the site at the time of treatment . If the tumor 

 is a spontaneous tumor and is treated by a test compound in the identical organ from which it arose, 

 the anatomical coding in Field E (units two and three of the tumor symbol) and the anatomical coding 

 in Field H-l are duplications in essence if not by definition; this would also be true if the tumor were 

 transplanted, but to the same organ of another individual (e. g. , a mouse mammary carcinoma trans- 

 planted to the mammary gland of another mouse of the same species or strain). However, many 

 chemical-biological test data concern experimental techniques using a standard tumor transplanted to 

 sites other than the organ or body part from which the tumor was derived. The organ of origin is indi- 

 cated by the tumor symbol in Field E; the transplantation site is coded in Field H-l. Retrieval of 

 information (from a file of coded data) on tumors with given specific organ origins will be by sorting 

 in Field E, while retrieval of information on tumors in given specific organ locations (whether 

 originating in those organs or not) will be by sorting in Field H- 1. 



Since the next part of the tumor symbol (units four through six, described in the next paragraph) 

 occasionally implies the tumor's anatomical classification, the use of the second and third units (for 

 anatomical association) may sometimes appear redundant. Indeed, in the case of occasional tumor 

 symbols, considered individually, this redundancy is a fact. (For example, S3412301 is a symbol for 

 a urinary bladder tumor of transitional epithelium. Since transitional epithelium is almost restricted 



to the urinary bladder and associated structures, Part II [-34 ] is near redundancy to Part III 



[ 123--]. ) However, it will be noted that essentially standard tumor classification is based on 



general tissue types rather than on specific organs in which they have originated and it is on this 

 organization by tissue types that units 4, 5, and 6 are correspondingly organized. Since, in a general 

 way, organs and organ systems are constructed of more than a single tissue, an organ or organ system 

 may given rise to tumors of not only one, but frequently more than one tissue type. Connective tissue 

 tumors, in particular, serve to illustrate this, since such a tumor would be classified with all other 

 connective tissue tumors, regardless of the organ in which it specifically arose. Therefore, a code 

 symbol, which indicated only that it was a connective tissue tumor and did NOT indicate that it was 

 of a specific organ, would not permit that tumor's organ-relation (i. e. , association with any and all 

 other tumors of that specific organ) being indicated by code. However, by providing the units for 

 specifying the organ or organ system, when a tumor i_s specifically associated with (i. e. , has arisen 

 from) an organ or organ system, it is possible to retrieve, from a file of coded data, information on 

 all tumors of any given organ or system by a single mechanical sort (e. g. , information on all tumors 

 of the mammary gland, regardless of their being adenocarcinomas [epithelial], fibrosarcomas [connective 

 tissue], melanomas, or otherwise). 



4. Part HI of the tumor symbol (4th, 5th, and 6th units, Columns 21, 22, and 23): tissue origin 



The fourth, fifth, and sixth units of the tumor symbol are organized to parallel standard tumor 

 classification and nomenclature, which is essentially based on tissue types. The fourth unit of the 

 tumor symbol (i. e. , the first unit of Part III) indicates to which large general histological group the 

 tumor belongs. Thus, symbols for this fourth unit have the following definitions. 



33 



