Tumor Tip of the Week 06-06-2025 C/W Ambiguous or Definitive Term-Heme Malignancy ONLY

06-06-2025

C/W Ambiguous or Definitive Term-Heme Malignancy ONLY

Scenario:

Bone marrow biopsy shows B lymphoblastic leukemia. FISH results consistent with lymphoblastic leukemia with hyperdiploidy.

Question: For this Heme Case, is “consistent with” lymphoblastic leukemia with hyperdiploidy a definitive diagnosis, thus allowing us to Code the more definitive histology to 9815/3: B lymphoblastic leukemia with hyperdiploidy and assign a diagnostic confirmation code of 3?

Yes

No

Answer & Rationale: Yes. To quote Jennifer Ruhl, MS, CCS, RHIT, ODS presentation NAACCR 2024/2025 Hematopoietic Part 1 Webinar presented 12/2024

“Consistent With” and Heme neoplasms

“Consistent with” is historically and currently considered ambiguous terminology

Becoming the standard of reporting Heme diagnoses

For HEME NEOPLASMS ONLY:

“Consistent with” is a definitive diagnosis

So, for coding Heme neoplasms, “consistent with” is not ambiguous terminology