SEER*Stat Release Notes

These are the highlights of the most recent software releases. More information is available on the SEER*Stat Installation page.

Version 8.3.4 (released March 23, 2017)

  • Upgraded handling of case suppression in calculations to include suppression of zero counts.
  • Added a button to the matrix export dialog for easily updating the settings for creation of CSV (Excel) output files.
  • Left-Truncated Life Tables calculations were updated regarding the exact starting age for cumulative calculations when using the Modified Product Limit stability criteria.
  • MP-SIR referent rates created from mortality databases are not usable with SIR databases, and incidence referent rates are not usable with SMR databases.
  • Exporting a Rate matrix as MP-SIR Rates will no longer be allowed for Incidence-Based Mortality databases.
  • Upgraded variable export dialog to allow appending to an existing export (.fmx) file.
  • Upgraded the OpenSSL encryption software to version 1.0.2h.

Version 8.3.2 (released April 14, 2016)

Fixed bug in Rate calculation subset, when Related File is used for Population selection.

Version 8.3.1 (released March 31, 2016)

  • Case Exclusion counts were added to Frequency, Rate, Prevalence, and Case Listing matrices.
  • The survival calculation was modified such that if everyone exits in a given interval and there were one or more censored cases, then the survival estimate is not calculated.
  • Z-Test statistics can now be displayed in the summary pages of survival results.
  • Added a new Find feature to the Data tab, for finding databases that match user's search terms.
  • Added new checkbox to display all calculated statistics by default for several sessions.
  • Added a new dialog to display the underlying selection statements for each of the standard selections on the session's selection tab.

Version 8.2.1 (released April 8, 2015)

Fixed an issue with the matrix export for Frequency sessions. This problem was introduced in version 8.2.0.

Version 8.2.0 (released March 31, 2015)

  • Added the ability to produce both delay and non-delay adjusted statistics in a single analysis in the rate and frequency sessions.
  • Fixed the Crude Probability of Death Using Cause of Death survival calculation to correctly handle exclusion of cases where the patient died with zero survival time due to other causes of death.
  • Added support of large expected rate tables for use in survival session. This includes tables by state-county.
  • Year variables are no longer allowed in the table for Trend analyses.
  • Added functionality to allow user to reset password.
  • Upgraded to the latest version of OpenSSL encryption software with the 'heartbleed' bug fixed. Added security enhancements to the server.
  • Frequency: Added support for adjusting precision in percentages.
  • Added support for multi-paged exclusion report in Survival, MP-SIR, and Left-Truncated Life Tables.
  • In Survival:
    • Allow single values as well as ranges in special interval.
    • Added Age Standardization Contributors matrix page.
    • Upgraded Pohar Perme calculation for 'Alpha' release.
  • Matrix Export: Added "NA" as one of the ways to represent missing data. This is useful when reading data into R programs. Also added a new option to omit creation of dictionary file when executing from the command line.

Version 8.1.5 (released March 31, 2014)

  • New Expected Survival Tables are available with November 2013 submission. These life tables only have ages through 99.
  • In Survival sessions:
    • A new checkbox was added to the Parameters tab to censor cases when attained age exceeds the maximum age in the expected rate table. The new default expected rate table has a maximum age of 99 years. When using this table, cases with age at diagnosis of 100 or greater will be removed from analysis.
    • Added more case count exclusion criteria when the “All tumors matching selection criteria” multiple primary option is specified.
  • Merged variables can now be used in defining groupings for other merged variables. Merged variables are also allowed in case listings generated by Survival, MP-SIR and Left-Truncated Life Tables sessions.
  • Left-Truncated Life Tables session is no longer a beta feature.
  • Added the ability to include Standard Populations in the output for a Rate session.
  • Added functionality for Delay Adjusting when using certain databases in Rate or Frequency sessions.
  • In MP-SIR sessions:
    • There was the potential to have cases in the Case Listing which had negative person time when an exit point was specified (early exit or exit at event in rate file, etc.). These people are now removed from those types of runs. Exclusion counts have been updated to account for these excluded individuals.
    • If Attained Calendar Year was a table dimension and a latency period was specified, the count of the number of people could have been wrong. This would also affect other statistics that use the number of people such as: mean person years at risk, mean age at exposure, and mean date of exposure. Other information tallied in the table (person time, observed, expected, etc.. ) was calculated correctly.

Version 8.1.2 (released September 9, 2013)

  • Left-Truncated Life Tables beta release.
  • In Survival:
    • Survival and Left-Truncated Life Tables case listings now support unlimited number of output fields. A new dimension is added to the table tab for Case Listing Only variables.
    • The Parameters and Table tabs have been switched in the tab order.
    • Added person shading to case listing when the multiple primary option "All Cases Matching Criteria" is selected.
    • Removed case-sensitivity when validating the names of COD variables.
    • Disallowed age standardizing when the age standardizing variable has only one grouping.
  • Fixed bug that allowed duplicate variable names in the dialog for resolving invalid session variables on load or database change.
  • Changed the writing of file associations in the registry to ensure that updates will be performed without Admin privileges.
  • Fixed bug in MP-SIR case listing so that each patient would have a record with a reason for exit and person time.
  • Variable Find dialog now returns found value to the search dialog and selects it.

Version 8.0.4 (released April 15, 2013)

  • Survival calculation can now be based on pre-calculated survival duration variables or on dates (begin and end dates).  The Pre-calculated survival duration option will be the default for SEER databases starting with the November 2012 submission.  The pre-calculated survival variables in the SEER data (Nov 2012+) have been calculated using complete dates rather than just month and year.
  • New fields have been added to the Survival case listing session. And, the interval expected survival variable has been updated to be an annual estimate.

Version 8.0.2 (released February 19, 2013)

This version included some bug fixes, not new features:

  • MP-SIR – there was a problem that occurred only when using early criteria.  The problem was limited to the case listing and frequency statistics and did not impact the standard SIR analyses. Highlighting in case listing and record counts when producing frequencies were affected.
  • Survival session - sessions would not execute when relative conditional survival statistics were requested and included in the cumulative summary pages.
  • Survival session – survival case listings sessions would not execute if the new multiple primary selection option was set to “All Tumors Matching Selection Criteria”. This did not impact standard survival analyses.
  • Limited-duration prevalence – sessions would not execute only when the multiple primary selection option was set to “All Tumors Matching Selection Criteria”, age-adjusted prevalence was being calculated, and the age variable for the age-adjustment was “Age recode” (the version with 18 age groups – with 0-4 year olds combined).

Version 8.0.1 (released November 19, 2012)

  • Any session or matrix created with version 8.0.0+ cannot be opened with older versions (7.1.0 or earlier).  The only way around this is to export the session as text and then import it with the older version.  If you’re working with other people that are using the older versions, please keep this in mind.
  • Added additional multiple primary selection options to the survival session. This provides more flexibility for selecting which cancers to include.
  • Added a Presumed alive option in survival which when turned on, will assume any patient that was not known to be dead was still alive on the study cut-off date.

Version 7.1.0 (released July 17, 2012)

  • This version included minor bug fixes and feature enhancements.

Version 7.0.9 (released April 12, 2012)

  • Age-standardization has been added to the survival session. Refer to Age Standards for Survival for more information.
  • There is a new age variable option available on the data tab of rate and prevalence sessions.  This is only available for new databases, data with cases/deaths through 2009 (to be released on 4/16/2012).  This feature eliminates the need for 2 separate databases that only differ due to the age variable linking the cases, populations, and standardizing populations (e.g. 19-ages vs. single ages).
  • There is a new link to view database details on the bottom of the data tab.  This link provides details of each SEER*Stat database in the new submission, including a dictionary of SEER variables. 

Version 7.0.5 (released September 29, 2011)

  • User Profile export and import can now include user variables. Multiple profiles and variables can be exported at once into a single file.
  • Longer variable names and grouping names are now supported. The new maximum length is 80 characters.

Version 7.0.4 (released April 14, 2011)

  • Profiles
    • The new Profile menu allows you to manage, create and use profiles. A profile stores information about your preferences such as data locations, directories to save files, and matrix export defaults. You can also select which databases you would like to see in SEER*Stat (e.g. you can hide all databases for previous submissions).
    • You can have multiple profiles and switch between them to help organize projects that use different data and possibly different settings.
  • Ederer II method for expected survival
    • Ederer II was added as the default method for calculating cumulative expected survival. Ederer I had been the default for calculations in previous versions of SEER*Stat. For more details, read the Technical Report 2011-01 by Cho et al.
    • A selection box for Cum Expected Method was added to the survival session's statistics tab to allow you to switch between Ederer II and Ederer I methods. The two options for adjusting for Heterogeneity were also moved from the Output tab to this new selection box.
    • This method was also discussed during a July 14, 2011 webinar.
  • Edit Variable Dialog
    • A small change was made to this dialog: when you select multiple values and click Add…, you now are prompted to add as a single group or individual values.
  • MP-SIR calculations
    • The MP-SIR calculations were updated in how simultaneous tumors are treated when using early exit criteria. Sequence number is now considered when tumors have the same event dates (date of diagnosis for SIRs). The higher sequence number tumor will not be counted as an event if the lower sequence number was the early exit tumor.