SEER Inquiry System - Question 20051077 Details

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Produced: 05/01/2026 3:33 PM

Question 20051077

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Inquiry Details

References:

2004 SEER Manual, 181

Question:

First Course Treatment--Unknown & ill-defined site: We have a case with an unknown primary site and the patient had chemoembolization into the hepatic artery. We don't know how to code this treatment. See Discussion.

Discussion:

We were told to code as surgery (10) and chemo (01). However an unknown primary automatically gets a (98) surgery code & the chemo is coded (01) but we can't code as systemic therapy. This is an edit. Chemo coded but no date of systemic therapy.

Answer:

Effective for cases coded prior to the change in policy made on January 9, 2008, code chemoembolization of a metastatic site as 1 [nonprimary surgical procedure performed] in Surgical Procedure of Other Site.

Surgery of Primary Site code 98 is assigned to all cases with an unknown primary.

In the case of a liver primary, it would be coded 10 [local tumor destruction, NOS] in Surgical Procedure of Primary Site.

Cancer Site Category:

Unknown & ill-defined sit

Data Item Category:

First course treatment

Other Category:

N/A

Year:

2005