CTR Study Guide 2026
Everything you need to pass the CTR exam in one place: the exam format, every topic to study, real practice questions with explanations, flashcards, and full-length practice tests. Free, no sign-up needed.
📋 CTR Exam Format at a Glance
📚 CTR Topics to Study (21)
✍️ Sample CTR Questions & Answers
1. If surgery is performed at a reporting facility but radiation therapy is given at another facility, how should treatment be abstracted?
STORE guidelines require abstractors to capture all first-course treatment regardless of where it was administered.
2. A pathology report describes a tumor as 'poorly differentiated.' What does this indicate to the tumor registrar?
Poorly differentiated (high-grade) tumors have cells that look very abnormal under the microscope, correlating with more aggressive behavior and typically worse prognosis.
3. What is the primary purpose of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR)?
NAACCR develops and promotes uniform data standards, certifies central registries for data quality, and facilitates data sharing across U.S. and Canadian registries.
4. What is the PRIMARY purpose of continuing education requirements in Confidentiality & Data Security for CTR professionals?
Continuing education in Confidentiality & Data Security ensures professionals maintain current knowledge and skills as standards, technologies, and best practices evolve in the Certified Tumor Registrar field.
5. A mastectomy is performed, and a sentinel lymph node biopsy removes 2 nodes with 1 positive. What value goes in Regional Nodes Positive?
Regional Nodes Positive records only the number of lymph nodes found to contain metastatic cancer, which is 1 in this case.
6. Tumor grade primarily describes which characteristic of a neoplasm?
Tumor grade reflects how closely cancer cells resemble normal cells microscopically; low-grade tumors are well-differentiated and high-grade tumors are poorly differentiated.