SEER Inquiry System - Question 20041099 Details

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Produced: 09/15/2025 7:33 PM

Question 20041099

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Inquiry Details

References:

#1: 2004 SEER Manual, 171

#2: 2004 SEER Manual, 195 & 199

Question:

First Course Treatment: If a patient makes a blanket refusal of all recommended therapy or refuses all treatment before any therapy was recommended, are only immunotherapy and hematologic/endocrine therapies to be coded as refused (code 87)? Or should all treatment modalities be coded as refused if a patient makes a blanket refusal? Or should none of the treatment modalities be coded as refused because we do not know what would have been recommended? See Discussion.

Discussion:

Coding instructions for immunotherapy and for hematologic/endocrine procedures state that Code 87 is to be assigned if either of the following circumstances apply: 1) If the patient made a blanket refusal of all recommended treatment. 2) If the patient refused all treatment before any was recommended. These instructions are not included for other treatment modalities.

Answer:

When the patient refuses treatment, the first course of therapy is no treatment. Code all treatments as refused.

Cancer Site Category:

N/A

Data Item Category:

First course treatment

Other Category:

N/A

Year:

2004