Leukemia, NOS

ICD10 Diagnosis
Dx:	Leukemia, NOS
ICD10 code:	C95.0
Pre-ICD10 counterpart:	none assigned
Charlson/ALERT Scale:	none
APACHE Como Component:	none
APACHE Acute Component:	none
Start Date:
Stop Date:
Data Dependencies(Reports/Indicators/Data Elements):	No results
External ICD10 Documentation	ICD-10 CM Wikipedia ICD-10 Wikipedia WHO ICD10 documentation ICD10data.com

This diagnosis is a part of ICD10 collection.

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  • 2019-01-01
  • 2999-12-31
  • C95.0

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Additional Info

• Leukemia is a group of cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal white blood cells. These white blood cells are not fully developed and are called blasts or leukemia cells.

• Clinically and pathologically, leukemia is subdivided into a variety of large groups. The first division is between its acute and chronic forms:
  • Acute leukemia is characterized by a rapid increase in the number of immature blood cells. The crowding that results from such cells makes the bone marrow unable to produce healthy blood cells. Immediate treatment is required in acute leukemia because of the rapid progression and accumulation of the malignant cells, which then spill over into the bloodstream and spread to other organs of the body. Acute forms of leukemia are the most common forms of leukemia in children.
  • Chronic leukemia is characterized by the excessive buildup of relatively mature, but still abnormal, white blood cells. Typically taking months or years to progress, the cells are produced at a much higher rate than normal, resulting in many abnormal white blood cells. Whereas acute leukemia must be treated immediately, chronic forms are sometimes monitored for some time before treatment to ensure maximum effectiveness of therapy. Chronic leukemia mostly occurs in older people, but can occur in any age group.
• Additionally, the diseases are subdivided according to which kind of blood cell is affected. This divides leukemias into lymphoblastic or lymphocytic leukemias and myeloid or myelogenous leukemias:
  • In lymphoblastic or lymphocytic leukemias, the cancerous change takes place in a type of marrow cell that normally goes on to form lymphocytes, which are infection-fighting immune system cells. Most lymphocytic leukemias involve a specific subtype of lymphocyte, the B cell.
  • In myeloid or myelogenous leukemias, the cancerous change takes place in a type of marrow cell that normally goes on to form red blood cells, some other types of white cells, and platelets.
• Combining these two classifications provides a total of four main categories. Within each of these main categories, there are typically several subcategories. Finally, some rarer types are usually considered to be outside of this classification scheme.

Leukemia vs Lymphoma

Any lymphoma may have a leukemic phase where the abnormal clonal cells appear in the circulation. Though this is sometimes referred to as a "leukemia", even by some oncologists, that is technically incorrect and ICD10 considers them to be lymphomas. This applies to essentially ALL so-called B-cell leukemias, which are actually lymphomas. It also applies to "NK-cell leukemia" which is also a lymphoma

As such, the following so-called "leukemias" should be coded as follows:

• So-called B-cell leukemias describes several different types of lymphoid lymphomas which affect B cells -- and all these should be coded as Lymphoma, NOS
  • "B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia"
  • "Precursor B cell lymphoblastic leukemia"
  • "Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia, mature B cell type"
  • "B cell prolymphocytic leukemia"

• So-called "NK-cell leukemia" -- code as T-cell lymphoma
  • Aggressive NK-cell leukemia (also called aggressive NK-cell lymphoma, or ANKL), is a very rare type of NHL. The body makes large numbers of NK cells that are larger than normal. It is grouped with T-cell lymphomas.
  • There is a very rare slow-growing (indolent) type of NK-cell leukemia that has a more favorable prognosis. It is called chronic NK-cell leukemia and is treated like T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia.
• The most common type of lymphoid leukemia is B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Using ICD10 Malignancy Codes as a Comorbid Diagnosis

• Any cancer/malignancy (either a "solid tumor" or a leukemia/lymphoma/bone marrow malignancy/"liquid tumor", i.e. any ICD10 code from C00-C99) can be a comorbid diagnosis --- BUT it's vital to distinguish malignancies in this category based on whether they are believed to be cured or not.

• If it's still present (or believed to be present), then just include the code for the specific cancer as a comorbid diagnosis.
• If INSTEAD, it's presumed cured, then in the "bin" of comorbid diagnoses combine the code for the specific cancer with this code: Past history, cancer (any type), believed cured

C00-C99 codes codes:

Metastases

Metastasis codes:

Regarding Presumptive Diagnosis of Malignancy

• Rarely a presumptive diagnosis is made without any tissue confirmation. This generally occurs with:
  1. risk of obtaining tissue is very high
  2. plan would be palliative regardless
  3. patient would refuse care regardless.
• Our issue for how to code a presumed malignancy without definitive histopathologic proof is this:
  • If the physicians are going to proceed with a treatment plan without that definitive histopathologic proof --- then code whatever is their best guess about what is present. Example: believed to be lung cancer with a big brain met, and they've decided NOT to do any biopsy but to give palliative radiation therapy, then you'd code lung cancer, and met to brain.
  • If the plan is to obtain a definitive histopathologic diagnosis soon or in the future, then instead code: Neoplasm of uncertain behavior (i.e. not clear if benign or malignant), NOS

"work-up for cancer"

If the cancer has not been confirmed then it should not be coded as cancer. Code relevant test abnormal test results or symptoms.

Testing codes:

Symptom/Sign codes:

Example:

"I have a patient who comes in with vague respiratory and gi symptoms. They did a chest xray and found a lung mass. They are now working him up for a probable lung ca, with mets to various places. In the old coding I would use ca-nyd. I actually use the ca nyd subcode a lot. I’ve talked to you about this before, because there is no ca nyd in icd10. You told me that you either have cancer or you don’t. For this particular patient I really wouldn’t have anything else I could code in icd10 for him. His symptoms are extremely vague. I don’t really like coding just symptoms, if there isn’t a proper admit diagnosis that fits better anyway. I found a “neoplasm of uncertain behavior (i.e. uncertain if benign or malignant), nos”, but I don’t really like that one. It doesn’t really fit. Is it possible to get something like “admit for workup of malignancy”, or something along those lines?" (Debbie, 12:40, 2018 October 4 (CDT)) How should this be coded? Ttenbergen 12:40, 2018 October 4 (CDT)

Alternate ICD10s to consider coding instead or in addition

Leukemia codes:

Candidate Combined ICD10 codes

Related CCI Codes

Data Integrity Checks (automatic list)

none found

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