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Case Listing Exercise 1b: View Patient Histories

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Narrow selection of persons based on cancer history and list multiple tumors per person in the data.

Exercise

Show all records from 2000-2021 for patients who have a breast cancer tumor meeting the selection criteria in Case Listing Exercise 1a, and at least one additional malignant cancer diagnosis.

Each patient in the table must have at least two tumor records:

  • a malignant breast cancer diagnosis at age 50+ in Iowa with a year of diagnosis from 2017-2021 (these are the criteria specified in Case Listing Exercise 1a); and
  • an additional malignant cancer diagnosis of any type.

Note that the selection for the index tumor is based on diagnoses from 2017-2021 but the output matrix will include tumors diagnosed from 2000-2021.

 You must have access to the Research Plus data to complete this exercise as written for cancer cases in the Iowa registry. Refer to Comparison of SEER Data Products for more information. If you do not have access to Research Plus data, you can still complete the exercise by using the alternative case listing file which does not limit cases based on registry.

Key Points

  • Person Selection can be toggled on/off in the Session options. When off, only tumor records meeting the criteria specified in the selection statement will be included in the matrix. When on, the matrix will include all records for each patient meeting the selection criteria.
  • Narrow the Selection of Persons allows you to select based on a person's cancer history, that is, all of their tumor records. For a person to be included, the statement at the top of the screen and the criteria specified in the Narrow the Selection of Persons section must be TRUE.
  • The options in the Select Only box at the top of the Selection options apply to both the index record and the other selected records.
  • Starting with the November 2020 data submission, SEER now uses "Behavior code ICD-O-3" rather than the "Behavior recode for analysis" field. Refer to Behavior Variable Changes for more information.

Instructions

Step 1:  Open Case Listing Exercise 1a's Matrix

  1. Start SEER*Stat.
  2. Open the file saved in Case Listing Exercise 1a. The filename should be "Case Listing Exercise 1a.slm".
  3. If you did not save the output for exercise 1a you may open our session and then skip to Step 3: Case Listing 1a Session. (Use the Case Listing 1a Session Alternative (sl, 69.1 KB) if you do not have access to the Research Plus Data.)

  • The folder icon on the title bar can be used to open any type of SEER*Stat file. It is equivalent to selecting Open from the File menu. Select the Browse button to access the Open dialog where, next to the File Name, you can specify a SEER*Stat file type to limit list of available files.
  • SEER*Stat uses the ".slm" extension for "SEER*Stat Listing Matrix" files.

Step 2:  Extract the Session and Verify the Database

SEER*Stat matrix files include the session information used to generate the table. This information serves as documentation for the table and provides a convenient method for generating similar output.

  1. From the Actions menu select the Retrieve Session button.
  2. Press the OK button on the Linked Database Change warning, if it opens. Two windows should now be open.
  3. Close the matrix window containing the results calculated in exercise 1a. You should now have one window labeled "Case Listing Session-x" where x is the number of case listing session windows that you have created since starting SEER*Stat.
  4. Since we extracted this session from exercise 1a's matrix file, verify that the "Incidence - SEER Research Plus Data, 17 Registries, Nov 2023 Sub (2000-2021) " database is selected on the Data options. (The "Incidence - SEER Research Data, 17 Registries, Nov 2023 Sub (2000-2021) " should be selected if you do not have access to the Research Plus data.)

  • SEER*Stat is an SDI application. SDI stands for Single Document Interface. Word and Excel are SDIs. That is, they allow you to work with more than one document at a time, each within its own window. With SEER*Stat that means that you can have any combination of session and matrix windows open at the same time.
  • SEER*Stat displays the filename in the title bar of an open window. If the session or matrix is not saved then a generic, numbered label is used ("Case Listing Session-x", "Case Listing Matrix-x", etc).

Step 3:  Modify the Selection Statement

  1. Click Selection from the sidebar menu.
  2. In the Person Selection box, check Use Person Selection. SEER*Stat will display a warning indicating that all records for each qualifying person will be included in the matrix. Press the Close button on the warning. If you executed SEER*Stat now, more records would be included in the table than are in the exercise 1a matrix. These are the additional diagnoses for each person.
  3. When Use Person Selection is on, the Select Only box applies the options to both the Index Record and Other Selections. Because we want to find people in the database with malignant breast cancer tumors and at least one additional malignant cancer diagnosis, leave the Malignant Behavior checkbox selected.
  4. Select the Narrow the Selection of Persons option that now appears in the Person Selection box. We will use this feature to limit the selection to people with two or more tumors (where at least one matches the selection criteria in the top box).
  5. Leave the Person Selection controls set to Select only persons with a matching index record and "at least" "1" "additional record(s)" matching the following:
  6. Do not enter a statement in the lower box. Having no selection indicates that at least 1 additional record of any type is a match. Therefore, the Selection options now specify that we want to see all records for persons with two or more tumors, where at least one matches the criteria at the top.

  • The Use Person Selection feature is only enabled if the records in the database are grouped by person and are in order of diagnosis (for example, SEER incidence databases are sorted by SEER Registry, Patient ID, and Record number recode). See Multiple Primary Selections for more information.
  • The For every selected person, include control at the bottom of the screen is always set to "all the person's records" in case listing Sessions. See Case Listings Selection Options for a description of other person selecting features.
  • SEER*Stat uses "nag" dialogs to present some warning messages. These dialogs include a checkbox to allow you to specify that you do not want to see the message in the future. Note: If you disabled the warning messages, you may turn them back on using the setting in the Preferences options when editing a Profile.  See the Profiles section for more information.

Step 4:  Modify the Table Options

  1. Select Table from the sidebar menu.
  2. Add "Site recode ICD-O-3/WHO 2008" and "Behavior code ICD-O-3" to the list of column variables. These were not included in exercise 1a because all records had the same values for these variables (site = breast cancer, behavior = malignant). Due to the inclusion of additional diagnoses, these variables will be of interest.

Step 5:  Edit the Title

  1. Move to the Output options.
  2. Modify the title to reflect our changes. The new title should be something like:
    All Tumors for Women with a
    Malignant Breast Cancer Diagnosis in Iowa, 2017-2021, Age 50+ at Dx
    and At Least One Additional Tumor of any Type
    Case Listing Exercise 1b

For those of you who are not proficient typists, feel free to copy-and-paste the title from this document to the Output options in SEER*Stat.

Step 6:  Execute SEER*Stat

  1. Execute the session.
  2. Press the OK button on any variable warnings, if they open. A new window will open containing the output table or matrix.
  3. Use the Save As command on the File menu to save the matrix. Enter "Case Listing Exercise 1b" as the filename. SEER*Stat will assign the "slm" extension to indicate that this is a "SEER*Stat Listing Matrix" file.
  4. Compare your output by executing this SEER*Stat session file: Case Listing Exercise 1b Session (sl, 75.3 KB). (Use Case Listing Exercise 1b Session ALT (sl, 72.8 KB) if you do not have access to the Research Plus Data.) Case listing examples are provided as session files instead of results matrices to ensure they may only be opened by those who have signed a SEER data use agreement and have permission to view individual records.
  5. Notice that the number of people in the cohort is listed as a footnote (look at the bottom of the matrix window).
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