TABLE 5.

Usefulness of each of the four databases for various clinical research questions

	NSQIP	NIS	SEER	NCDB
Rates of lumpectomy vs mastectomy over time	X	X (before 2015)	X	X
Rates of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy over time	X	X (before 2015)	X	X
Trends in immediate breast reconstruction	X	X (before 2015)	X	X
Radiation burden in breast reconstruction patients				X
Relationship between insurance status and breast cancer treatment		X		X
Hospital costs associated with breast cancer patients		X
Comorbidity profiles of breast cancer patients	X	X*		X*
Postoperative complication profile of surgical breast cancer patients	X
Effects of anesthesia type on postoperative outcomes in breast cancer surgeries	X
Patterns in use of chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, and immunotherapy for breast cancer patients				X
Pathologic vs clinical lymph node status of breast cancer patients			X*	X
Effects of geographic location on breast cancer treatment patterns		X*		X
Granular race data on breast cancer patients			X	X
Length of hospital stay for surgical breast cancer patients	X	X		X
Patterns in breast cancer treatment based on granular oncologic data (tumor behavior, grade, histology, ER/PR/HER2 status)			X	X

NSQIP National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, NIS Nationwide Inpatient Sample, SEER Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results program, NCDB National Cancer Database, ER estrogen receptor, PR progesterone receptor, HER2 human epidermal growth factor receptor 2

X = appropriate database for this clinical inquiry

X* = less ideal