Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy and Surgical Tumour Resections in England

2013-2020 diagnoses (April 2023)

This release (April 2023) updates previous data to include 2020 diagnoses and shows variation in treatment rates by tumour and patient characteristics, and Cancer Alliance. The data focusses on the time period following diagnosis within which most patients' first course of treatment occurred, although adjuvant and neo-adjuvant treatments may be captured as well as the primary treatment.

Initial work on the online tool was undertaken as part of the Cancer Research UK – NHS England partnership.

Outputs available

Online tool: We have created an easy to navigate tool for viewing and downloading the data. This update adds the option to filter by year groups.

Updates to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) v4.8 CAS-SOP #4.8 have been made to reflect the data snapshots used to extract this refreshed data.

2013-2019 diagnoses (March 2023)

A small number of tumour resection procedures were identified as missing from April 2019 onwards in the 2013-2019 treatment data published on the 9th June 2022. This resulted in a reduction in the proportion of tumours reported as receiving tumour resection procedures from April 2019 onwards. This effect was usually no more than a 2% reduction, but was greater for non-melanoma skin cancers. The 2013-2019 treatment data was refreshed on the 9th March 2023, rectifying the missing surgery events.

This data shows variation in treatment rates by tumour and patient characteristics, and Cancer Alliance. The data focusses on the time period following diagnosis within which most patients' first course of treatment occurred, although adjuvant and neo-adjuvant treatments may be captured as well as the primary treatment.

Initial work on the online tool was undertaken as part of the Cancer Research UK – Public Health England partnership.

Outputs available

Online tool: We have created an easy to navigate tool for viewing and downloading the data. This update adds the option to filter by year groups.

Updates to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) v4.7.1. CAS-SOP #4.7.1 has been made to reflect the data snapshots used to extract this refreshed data.

2013-2019 diagnoses (June 2022)

This release (June 2022) updates previous data to include 2019 diagnoses and shows variation in treatment rates by tumour and patient characteristics, and Cancer Alliance. The data focusses on the time period following diagnosis within which most patients' first course of treatment occurred, although adjuvant and neo-adjuvant treatments may be captured as well as the primary treatment.

Initial work on the online tool was undertaken as part of the Cancer Research UK – Public Health England partnership.

Outputs available

Online tool: We have created an easy to navigate tool for viewing and downloading the data. This update adds the option to filter by year groups.

 

This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) v4.7 CAS-SOP #4.7  updates the previous version (The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) entitled ‘CAS-SOP #4.6’:). This version has been updated to include tumours diagnosed in 2019. Skin tumour categories have also been expanded to include genital tumours. The changes to the code are summarised in Appendix 1 of this document.

2013-2018 diagnoses (November 2021)

This release (November 2021) updates previous data to include 2018 diagnoses and shows variation in treatment rates by tumour and patient characteristics, and Cancer Alliance. The data focusses on the time period following diagnosis within which most patients' first course of treatment occurred, although adjuvant and neo-adjuvant treatments may be captured as well as the primary treatment.

Initial work on the online tool was undertaken as part of the Cancer Research UK – Public Health England partnership.

Outputs available

Online tool: We have created an easy to navigate tool for viewing and downloading the data.

The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) entitled ‘CAS-SOP #4.6’: This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) (v4.6) updates the previous version (CAS-SOP #4.5), incorporating ICD10 codes, resection procedure codes and treatment time frames specific to 5x tumour sites. The affected tumour sites are Brain (benign endocrine), Brain (non-malignant brain), Melanoma, Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer (NMSC): Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), NMSC: cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma (cSCC), NMSC: other. It also updates the previous SOP to include tumours diagnosed in 2017 and 2018. The changes to the code are summarised in Appendix 1 of this document.

2013-2016 diagnoses (April 2020)

This release (April 2020) updates previous data to include 2016 diagnoses, and shows variation in treatment rates by tumour and patient characteristics, and Cancer Alliance. The data focusses on the time period following diagnosis within which most patients' first course of treatment occurred, although adjuvant and neo-adjuvant treatments may be captured as well as the primary treatment.

Initial work on the online tool was undertaken as part of the Cancer Research UK – Public Health England partnership.

Outputs available

Online tool: We have created an easy to navigate tool for viewing and downloading the data.

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) ‘CAS-SOP #4.5’: This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) (v4.5) updates the previous version (CAS-SOP #4.4), to include tumours diagnosed in 2016. 

2013-2015 diagnoses (July 2018)

This release (July 2018) updates previous data to include 2015 diagnoses, and shows variation in treatment rates by tumour and patient characteristics, and Cancer Alliance. 

The data focusses on the time period following diagnosis within which most patients' first course of treatment occurred, although adjuvant and neo-adjuvant treatments may be captured as well as the primary treatment. 

Outputs available 

A presentation given at the June 2015 Cancer Outcomes Conference in Belfast examined the agreement in reported frequency of chemo- and radio-therapy in routinely collected healthcare datasets.

Workbook 1: “Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy and Tumour Resection by Tumour & Patient Characteristics in England, 2013 – 2015”. This workbook presents the numbers and percentages of tumours diagnosed in England in 2013 - 2015 recorded as receiving radiotherapy, chemotherapy or tumour resection, by cancer site, year, stage at diagnosis, age, sex, deprivation, ethnicity, comorbidities.

Workbook 2: "Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy and Tumour Resection by Cancer Alliance in England, 2013 – 2015”. This workbook presents the numbers and percentages of tumours diagnosed in England in 2013 - 2015 recorded as receiving radiotherapy, chemotherapy or tumour resection, by Cancer Alliance.

The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) entitled 'CAS-SOP #4.4': The purpose of this SOP is to describe the method of linking treatment tables to the cancer registration data in the Cancer Analysis System (CAS). This allows basic treatment flags to be created; recording whether there was chemotherapy, tumour resection, or radiotherapy recorded following cancer diagnosis. This was the basis of the two workbooks above.

Site-specific summary slides: Graphed results from workbook 1 for each cancer site have been summarised in brief powerpoint decks, with some interpretation added through consultation with site-specific clinicians. These are available below:

Workbook 3 (November 2018): “Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy and Tumour Resection by stage and age, England, 2013 – 2015”. This workbook presents the numbers and percentages of tumours diagnosed in England in 2013 - 2015 recorded as receiving radiotherapy, chemotherapy or tumour resection, by cancer site, followed by the breakdown of age band for each stage at diagnosis. It builds on previous work, and should be used alongside the previous publication "Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy and Tumour Resection by Tumour & Patient Characteristics in England, 2013 - 2015".

2013-2014 diagnoses (corrected February 2018)

The first set of releases, published in October 2017 (corrected in February 2018), included patients diagnosed in 2013-2014, and was split by cancer site and stage at diagnosis. These are available below.

Outputs available

The short report describes the main results of the treatment overview presented in the workbook. This report aims to 1) explain how the data should be interpreted, 2) summarise key results from the accompanying excel workbook, and 3) highlight the methodology used.

The workbook provides an overview of the treatment used in England during 2013 - 2014. This workbook presents the numbers and percentages of tumours diagnosed in England in 2013 - 2014 recorded as receiving radiotherapy, chemotherapy or tumour resection. The results are presented by cancer site, year and stage at diagnosis.

The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) entitled 'CAS-SOP #4' describes the methodology used.

This work has been used in a number of CRUK outputs, namely health professional pages on Cancer diagnosis and treatment statistics, a science blog and a press release.