Costs and Request Processing Services Fees

The SEER VTR Program charges processing fees for the following services according to specifications outlined in the investigator's request.

  • Determination of case eligibility
  • Removal of cases receiving neoadjuvant therapy
  • Biospecimen request, retrieval, processing, and shipping
  • Pathologist review and histology services
  • Pathology reports
  • Digital whole slide imaging
  • Clinical and demographic information
  • Custom clinical annotation

Depending on the study requirements and the requests, there may be additional fees assessed before the Financial Agreement with each registry is signed.

Shipping: Investigators are responsible for all shipping costs, which will vary according to the weight and priority status of the shipment.

Unit for Fees: The fees detailed below are per piece of processed biospecimen, regardless of sample size.

The information provided in this table is also available in an Excel spreadsheet format (XLSX, 20 KB).

Service Unit Fee (U.S. $)
Pathology Report Review and De-identification
Pathology report request (if not in system) case 15
Pathology report de-identification and quality control case 15
Light Microscopy Whole Slide Imaging
Whole slide image at 20x slide 10
Whole slide image at 40x slide 20
Whole slide image de-identification and quality control whole slide image 15
128 GB portable hard drive* hard drive 70
1 TB portable hard drive* hard drive 90
2 TB portable hard drive* hard drive 125
External storage provided by requestor batch transfer 40
Tracked shipment of portable hard drive(s) shipment 30
Expedited and tracked shipment of portable hard drive(s) shipment 45
Pathology Services
Confirmation of tissue availability case 5
Retrieval of original microscopic slide(s) from biopsy or surgery pathology case 10
Pathologist case review pathology case 50
Tissue block retrieval block 30
H&E-stained slide from paraffin block slide 15
Unstained 10-micron slide cut from paraffin block unstained slide 10
Ribbons/scrolls from paraffin block block 15
Packaging and tracked shipping case 20
Laboratory equipment fee batch 50
Laboratory labor fee batch 20
Special histology processing fee case 20
Tissue refiling fee block 15
SEER Data Extract
Data confirmation of de-identification and quality control case 10
Other One-time Fees
Determination of eligibility criteria study 100
Case selection meeting eligibility criteria case 10
Studies requesting tissue from >2 laboratories Each additional laboratory 100
Special data coding for custom clinical annotation Each data field per case 20

* estimate 4GB data needed per 40x image

Additional fees may apply depending on the study's specific requirements, such as charges associated with excluding cases that received neoadjuvant treatment before surgery.

Financial Agreement and Payments

Investigators will be required to sign a Financial Agreement with each VTR Program registry providing de-identified specimens, pathology reports, whole slide images, and/or data. After these agreements are signed, the request cannot be modified. Any changes to the study and/or request will need to be submitted as a new study.