Local Cancer Intelligence Service

The Cancer Alliance Data, Evidence and Analysis Service (CADEAS) is a partnership between NHS England and Public Health England.  It is a service supporting the 19 Cancer Alliances in England.  More information on their work can be found here.

Overview

The National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS) offers a service for local cancer intelligence. Our key local stakeholders who will use this service include NHS England Clinical Networks and Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS provider trusts, and local government, as well as charities and other local third sector organisations. 

 This service function falls under two main domains.

  • Stakeholder engagement and knowledge transfer: Communicating and demonstrating national tools and resources to our local stakeholders. This is achieved by presenting at regional events (e.g. roadshows, symposia, conferences, meetings), by running informative online webinars, and by producing data briefings that usefully summarise the local cancer statistics from national work. As well as giving stakeholders an understanding of how to best understand and use these products, this also allows us to facilitate feedback on whether these outputs are still fit for purpose, and how we can improve our service. 
  • Bespoke work: As the experts in cancer data and analyses, from across the patient pathway, we can signpost people to the most appropriate resources and tools from the many that are available within and outside PHE. As well as the outputs that are used by many across the country, we recognise the varying needs and priorities in different regional areas. We are keen to understand these priorities and to proactively form deliverable work programmes with stakeholder groups, in conjunction with PHE Centre and Local Knowledge and Intelligence Service colleagues, as appropriate. This may, for example, include contributing to local authorities’ Joint Strategic Needs Assessments. Where competing priorities and resource allow, we are able to provide results for ad hoc requests. We also work with local Directors of Public Health to investigate concerns about local cancer risks (‘clusters’).

A report 'Local engagement: explanation of cancer data, tools, terminology and outputs' has been compiled which provides an overview of the data available along the cancer pathway, and the metrics and outputs designed to provide intelligence from this data.  It aims to equip the reader with the necessary context and key measures to focus on across the cancer pathway.  It should give the reader an overview of the work produced by NCRAS. Example outputs have been included using London data, but this report is applicable to all regions.

Contacts for local cancer intelligence

Local queries can be sent in to our general enquiries address, ncrasenquiries@phe.gov.uk. 

There are a number of online tools and other national resources which are particularly useful for local cancer intelligence. These are described below.  The links to these tools can be found on the Cancer Information Tools section.

Cancer tools containing local data

  • CancerStats and CancerData: These are portals containing the latest cancer statistics.  CancerData is publicly accessible and contains cancer incidence and mortality statistics.  CancerStats contains a wider range of cancer statistics by a range of geographies and requires an account and N3 internet connection.  This was formerly known as CASCADE, and contains the Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset Data (COSD) and other cancer metrics.  Following the recommendations from the Achieving World Class Outcomes report by the Independent Cancer Taskforce, the cancer dashboard is now available on CancerData.  The cancer dashboard, co-produced by NHS England and Public Health England, is intended as a tool to help clinical leaders, commissioners and providers to quickly and easily identify priority areas for improvement in their cancer services.   Data are presented at both CCG and provider levels. 
  • Cancer statistics by Clinical Commissioning Group: A range of statistics, including incidence, mortality, prevalence and survival.
  • Cancer hubs for Gynaecological cancer, Head and Neck cancerSkin cancer and Urology Cancer: These Instant Atlas portals cover a range of ovarian, cervical, uterine and vulval cancer, head and neck cancers, skin cancer and urological cancer statistics by Clinical Commissioning Group and Health and Wellbeing Board.
  • CCG Cancer Profiles: These are profiles created by the local cancer intelligence service to provide a quick summary of key statistics on cancer for each CCG.  The profiles benchmark each CCG with its 10 most similar CCGs for a comparison on a number of indicators.  This link shows an example of the profiles for Vale of York CCG who worked with us to create these profiles.  If you would like a similar report for your CCG please email the contact for your local region.
  • Cancer Commissioning Toolkit: This has now been decommissioned, but CHI (Cancer Headline Indicators) will be released in due course, and will include at least as much information as the former CCT (contained a wide range of cancer statistics by local geographies) and will be updated in a similar manner.

Broader public health tools containing local cancer data

  • Fingertips Public Health Profiles tool: There are a variety of cancer metrics contained within the Fingertips Public Health Profiles data portal, including the Cancer Services Profiles and GP Practice Profiles.
  • Local health: A tool developed by PHE to present data at ‘small area’ level (MSOA, ward, local authority, CCG and England) with indicators available for incidence of all cancers, breast, colorectal, lung and prostate cancer.
  • Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF): This PHE tool includes regional data on a wide range of public health metrics, including cancer metrics on screening coverage and cancer diagnosed at early stage (experimental).  This tool can also be accessed through FingerTips.
  • NHSE Commissioning for Value focus packs: There are cancer-specific packs which provide information on finance, performance, improvement and health outcomes by CCG, including data on pathways, early diagnosis, screening and treatment. 
  • PHE data and analysis tools: A single point of access to data and analysis tools from across Public Health England.  

Outputs containing local data

  • Emergency breakdown by region in England: Previous Routes to diagnosis publications have identified that survival is worse for patients diagnosed through the emergency presentation route than other routes for every cancer type.  A recently published workbook presented the variation among the emergency presentation route, and this workbook presents this breakdown by region in England.  The proportion of patients to be diagnosed through A&E, emergency GP appointment, emergency inpatient and emergency outpatient appointment for 9 regions in England is included, for 2006-2013 combined and the trend across these years.  
  • Distribution of age and stage by region in England: This workbook presents the number of tumours diagnosed in England during 2012 to 2014, by age at cancer diagnosis and stage of cancer. Data has been presented by cancer group and geography. This is an extension of the workbook published for London here.
  • Cancer prevalence statistics by local area: Cancer prevalence statistics by Strategic Clinical Network, Clinical Commissioning Group and Local Authority for England are available here. The figures relate to all patients diagnosed with cancer between 1991 and 2010 and who were still alive at the end of 2010. 
  • Cancer staging statistics by Clinical Commissioning Group: This Excel file contains cancer staging information by Clinical Commissioning Group in England.          
  • Cancer outcomes metrics by Clinical Commissioning Group: This spreadsheet contains both cancer outcomes metrics presented at Clinical Commissioning Group level, on a quarterly basis and with a 1-year rolling average.
  • Routes to diagnosis of cancer, including major resections: A number of national outputs have been published on routes to diagnosis.  Workbook (b) contains a regional breakdown by Strategic Clinical Network and Clinical Commission Group.  An extension of this work with information on major resections can be found here.
  • One year survival index: ONS produced an index of cancer survival for all Clinical Commissioning Groups in England for adults diagnosed during 1998-2013 and followed up to 2014.  

For updates on NCIN-badged publications and tools, please visit our NCIN Homepage.

Local summaries of released data

Local analysts routinely produce briefings for national statistics which include regional information.  These summarise the key findings for the region, and regularly compare to the national average.  Details on recent releases can be found below:

  • See the CADEAS section
  • Cancer Patient Experience Survey: On 5 July 2016, the 2015 results of the Cancer Patient Experience Survey (CPES) were released.  Lead analysts for the local regions produced briefings on these results, and so far key findings have been shared across the London, North West and West Midlands regions.  These briefings summarised the level of respondents, case-mix adjusted results and performance ratings by CCG, and were shared with regional PHE Centres, local authorities, Directors of Public Health and NHS colleagues.  This was done via LKIS weekly newsletters and local contacts.  Further details on the CPES results can be found here
  • Cancer Registration Statistics 2015New registration statistics were released for the registration year 2015 - we have provided local bulletins for the East of EnglandLondon, North EastNorth WestWest Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber.
  • Cancer Registration Statistics 2014: On 27 May 2016, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published cancer registrations statistics to include cancers diagnosed up to 2014 in England. The publication presents statistics for England, region of residence, cancer site, sex, age and year of diagnosis.   A briefing was produced for London and the North West.  A key finding for London was that the number of cancer registrations in London for 2014 increased in both males and females by 4.3% and 5.2% respectively compared with 2013.  North West males and females had the second highest age-standardised incidence rates compared with other regions in England in 2014 for all cancers combined.
  • Geographical Patterns of Cancer Survival in England: The Office for National Statistics released data on the Geographical Patterns of Cancer Survival in England on 23 March 2016, focusing on adults (15 to 99 years) diagnosed from 2005 to 2009 and followed up to 2014. This briefing presents the key findings of survival of men and women diagnosed in London and England.
  • Cancer Survival Index Release: On 26 February 2016, ONS released the Index of cancer survival for Clinical Commissioning Groups in England: Adults diagnosed 1998-2013 and followed up to 2014.  This includes 1-year cancer survival for all cancers combined, for breast (women), colorectal, and lung cancer and for these three cancers combined.  A briefing was prepared for London and the North West.

Release updates

A key function of local analysts is the dissemination of knowledge to our stakeholders, and as such local analysts produce release updates.  The July update can be found here, and was collated by the East of England.  

Local Intelligence

Local Cancer Intelligence

CADEAS

 

Region specific work

East of England

London

 NCRAS - TCST Partnership