Linking SEER data to Medicare claims data has been used to study what aspects of cancer care?

• A. Costs of cancer treatment
• B. Incidence rates by race
• C. Tumor morphology updates
• D. Survival times

Answer: (A)

Linking SEER data to Medicare claims combines clinical cancer information with actual health-care utilization and cost data. SEER provides incidence, tumor characteristics, and survival, while Medicare claims give detailed records of what services were billed, when they were delivered, and how much they cost (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, hospitalizations, physician visits, imaging, hospice, etc.). This pairing makes it possible to quantify the real-world cost of cancer care and to explore how those costs and treatment patterns vary by stage, patient demographics, geography, and comorbidities. The other options focus on incidence, tumor morphology updates, or survival times, which SEER can address on its own; the linkage is particularly powerful for studying the economic aspects of cancer care.