Surgery to Primary Site

Surgery to primary site has been collected in multiple fields over time.

For cases diagnosed 2023+ use field RX Summ--Surg Prim Site 2023 (2023+)

In 2023, the original 2-digit numeric field used for surgery was expanded to a 4-character alpha-numeric field (i.e. A450 or B450). The main reason for this change was due to evolution of surgical techniques and the naming conventions.

Not all site groups for surgery have been reviewed. For site groups where the surgery codes have not undergone review, all the surgery codes will start with the letter A, which is then followed by the 2-digit numeric code used in the 1998-2022 field, and then a 0 added at the end. (Surgery code 30 from the 1998-2022 field becomes A300 in the new field).

For site groups where the surgery codes have been updated, the 4-character alpha numeric code starts with B, for example, B300. For the B codes, these may be different than the original surgery codes and the A codes.

The following site groups have undergone a change in definitions for the 2023+ surgery field:

For cases diagnosed 1998-2022 use field RX Summ--Surg Prim Site (1998-2022)

For site-specific surgery definitions (values and labels) as well as changes between RX Summ–Surg Prim Site (1998-2022) and RX Summ–Surg Prim Site 2023 (2023+) please reference this document (XLSX, 109 KB).

Note: This document does not take the place of the SEER Program and Coding Manual. For more detailed information on how the data is collected refer to Appendix C of the appropriate coding manual based on diagnosis year.

For cases diagnosed prior to 1997 use field Site specific surgery (1973-1997 varying detail by year and site)

This field specifies information on surgery during first course of therapy whether it was cancer-directed or not. (Prior to 1988 SEER did not collect information on surgical procedures if not cancer-directed.) The Reason for No Cancer-directed Surgery field must be used to distinguish among no cancer-directed surgery performed; cancer-directed surgery recommended, unknown if performed; and unknown if cancer-directed surgery performed.

In addition to the sites below, detailed schemes for the following sites were put into place:

A general scheme was used for all other sites.

The actual coding schemes for individual sites and time periods can be viewed at 2-Digit Site-Specific Surgery Codes (1983-1997) (PDF, 91 KB). 

For Cases Diagnosed 1983-1987

Detailed schemes were in place for the following sites:

All other sites are coded to the same nonspecific scheme used for 1973-82 cases (below).

For Cases Diagnosed 1973-1982

All cases were coded using the following nonspecific scheme:

¹ Code '09' must be used in conjunction with Reason for No Cancer-directed Surgery to distinguish "No cancer directed surgery" from "Unknown if cancer-directed surgery performed" and "Cancer-directed surgery recommended but unknown if given."  Code ‘00’ is only used for cases diagnosed only at autopsy.