SEER Cancer API Python API Docs | dltHub

The SEER API is a RESTful web service for accessing SEER Program data sets. It's designed for developers, not end-users, and supports various cancer statistics and tools. The API is available for integration into registry systems. The REST API base URL is https://api.seer.cancer.gov and all requests require an API key (X‑SEERAPI‑Key header) — API key may also be passed as api_key query parameter.

dlt is an open-source Python library that handles authentication, pagination, and schema evolution automatically. dlthub provides AI context files that enable code assistants to generate production-ready pipelines. Install with uv pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading SEER Cancer API data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from SEER Cancer API?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from SEER Cancer API:

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How do I authenticate with the SEER Cancer API API?

The SEER API authenticates requests with an API key. Include the key in the X‑SEERAPI‑Key HTTP header (preferred) or pass it as an api_key query parameter (less secure). Missing or invalid keys return 401.

1. Get your credentials

1. Create a free SEER API account (Login.gov is preferred). 2) Log in and open your Account page. 3) Copy the assigned API key shown on the Account page. 4) Use that key in requests via the X‑SEERAPI‑Key header or api_key query parameter.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.seer_cancer_api_source]
api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"

dlt reads this automatically at runtime — never hardcode tokens in your pipeline script. For production environments, see setting up credentials with dlt for environment variable and vault-based options.

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How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

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uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

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dlt ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex

This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent. Learn more →

2. Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:

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dlt ai toolkit rest-api-pipeline install

This loads the skills and context about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. The agent uses MCP tools to inspect credentials — it never needs to read your secrets.toml directly. Learn more →

3. Start LLM-assisted coding:

Use /find-source to load data from the SEER Cancer API API into DuckDB.

The rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.

4. Run the pipeline:

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python seer_cancer_api_pipeline.py

If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:

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Pipeline seer_cancer_api_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset seer_cancer_api_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/seer_cancer_api.duckdb location to store data
Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs

Inspect your pipeline and data:

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dlt pipeline seer_cancer_api_pipeline show

This opens the Pipeline Dashboard where you can verify pipeline state, load metrics, schema (tables, columns, types), and query the loaded data directly.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads disease and staging from the SEER Cancer API API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

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import dlt
from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources

@dlt.source
def seer_cancer_api_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.seer.cancer.gov",
            "auth": {
                "type": "api_key",
                "api_key": api_key,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "disease", "endpoint": {"path": "rest/disease/latest", "data_selector": "results"}},
            {"name": "staging", "endpoint": {"path": "rest/staging", "data_selector": "results"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="seer_cancer_api_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="seer_cancer_api_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(seer_cancer_api_source())
    print(load_info)

To add more endpoints, append entries from the resource table to the "resources" list using the same name, path, and data_selector pattern.

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How do I query the loaded data?

Once the pipeline runs, dlt creates one table per resource. You can query with Python or SQL.

Python (pandas DataFrame):

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("seer_cancer_api_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.disease.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM seer_cancer_api_data.disease LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("seer_cancer_api_pipeline").dataset()
data.disease.df().head()

See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.

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What destinations can I load SEER Cancer API data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.

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Next steps

Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI Workbench:

• data-exploration — Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.
• dlthub-runtime — Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.

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dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

• How to deploy a pipeline
• How to explore your data in marimo Notebooks
• How to query your data in Python with dataset
• Join the dlt community on Slack