In a hospital setting, primary site of cancer should be recorded on the patient's medical record by the patient's attending clinician or medical practitioner, and coded by the hospital's medical records department.

Hospitals use Diagnosis codes from ICD-10-AM (7th edition). Valid codes must start with C or D.

In hospital reporting, the diagnosis code for each separate primary site cancer will be reported as a Principal diagnosis or an Additional diagnosis as defined in the current edition of the Australian Coding Standards. In death reporting, the Australian Bureau of Statistics uses ICD-10.

Some ICD-10-AM (7th edition) diagnosis codes e.g. mesothelioma and Kaposi's sarcoma, are based on morphology and not site alone, and include tumours of these types even where the primary site is unknown.