NCIN Data Briefings
Data briefings are short documents highlighting one issue and written for a general audience. The briefings published to date may be read online and PDF versions downloaded by clicking the links below.
1. Survival outcomes for different forms of leukaemia should be reported separately. The different cancers called ‘leukaemia’ vary in the groups they affect, in their overall severity and in their outcome. Grouped summary outcomes for leukaemia do not represent accurately the experience for any of the individual cancers. Apparent differences between areas can result from different levels of registration for different cancers.
2. Because of all of these reasons, reporting outcomes for ‘leukaemia’ as a group is misleading.
The incidence of potentially HPV-related H&N SCCs increased between 1990 and 2008 - particularly in males. Patients with potentially HPV-related SCCs are on average younger than those with other non-HPV-related H&N cancers. The risk of developing a potentially HPV-related SCC is higher among people born after 1940 than those born in earlier decades.
Almost 10% of people diagnosed with colorectal cancer die within one month of diagnosis. 56% of people dying within one month are 80 or more years old. 60% of early deaths present initially as emergency cases to hospital. At least 50% of patients who die within one month receive no active treatment. Raising the level of public awareness of colorectal cancer and increasing early diagnosis may help to improve survival rates for colorectal cancer.
Mount Vernon Cancer Network provides a case study where regular and systematic reviews of information about process / clinical measures and survival rates by clinicians to understand and benchmark their lung cancer clinical pathways have yielded improvements. The Network has recently measured a 25% increase in the 1-year survival for lung cancer rates between 2006 and 2009. This means that while previously 1 in 4 patients lived for a year post diagnosis, it is now 1 in 3 patients. This data briefing was produced by the Mount Vernon Cancer Network.
For several common cancers, five-year survival is lower for males than for females within the 20 to 24 year age group. These differences are not apparent in 15 to 19 year olds. This data briefing was produced by the North West Cancer Intelligence Service (NWCIS).
Overall 5-year and 15-year relative survival for women with screen-detected invasive breast cancer (97.1% and 83.0% respectively) is very good. There has been a marked improvement in 5-year survival for women with poor prognosis invasive breast cancer detected through the UK NHS Breast Screening Programme from 58.5% for 1992/93 cases to 77.7% for 2002/03 cases. This data briefing was produced by the West Midlands Cancer Intelligence Unit.
The NHS Information Standards Board (ISB) has now granted Full Stage approval to the Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) Information Standard (ISB 1533) and an Information Standard Notice has been circulated to the NHS in England. This data briefing shows some more details and gives a timetable on the data collection.
Rare skin cancers are a mixed group in terms of causation, pathogenesis and outcome. Their rarity makes it challenging to study them. This data briefing describes their incidence and highlights the poor outcome for patients with Merkel cell carcinoma. This data briefing was produced by the South West Public Health Observatory.
Later cancer diagnosis is a major explanation for poorer survival rates in the UK. In England, the Improving Outcomes: A Strategy for Cancer estimates that, if patients were diagnosed at the same earlier stage as they are in other countries up to 10,000 deaths could be avoided every year. This briefing provides updated information on the variation in the two-week wait referral rate. This data briefing was produced by Trent Cancer Registry.
Differentiated teratomata account for about 7% of the total of both malignant and benign tumours of the testis. Registering them as malignant will increase the number of testicular cancers in England by about 150 each year. This data briefing was produced by the South West Public Health Observatory.
Among children with cancer, 47% of deaths occurred in hospital, and 39% occurred in the patient’s own home. Corresponding figures for teenagers and young adults were 52% in hospital and 32% at home. Place of death was more likely to be hospital for Asian patients than for White patients. This data briefing was published by the Childhood Cancer Research Group (CCRG) and the North West Cancer Intelligence Service (NWCIS).
Factors associated with the risk of death within 30-days of surgery are complex. Overall, the number of post-operative deaths is falling but the risk varies across the population in relation to the characteristics of the individuals being operated upon. This data briefing was published by the Northern and Yorkshire Cancer Registry and Information Service (NYCRIS).
Most people dying of a haematological cancer do so in hospital. Compared to other cancers, fewer deaths occur at home or in a hospice. This pattern is seen at all ages. The proportion of deaths occurring in hospital is falling, but less than seen in other cancers. This data briefing was published by the Northern and Yorkshire Cancer Registry and Information Service (NYCRIS).
There is a marked variation in age-adjusted cancer incidence and mortality rates between rural and urban areas. This is partly due to the variation in socio-economic deprivation but even when this is taken into account some significant differences remain. This data briefing was produced by NCIN.
Survival rates for most, though not all, types of cancer have increased in recent years for both 0 - 14 and 15 - 24 year olds. This data briefing was prepared by the Childhood Cancer Research Group (CCRG) and the North West Cancer Intelligence Service (NWCIS).
The majority (53%) of screen-detected invasive breast cancers are small (<15mm diameter), 26% are Grade I and 78% are lymph node negative. Screen-detected cancers are more likely to receive breast conserving surgery than mastectomy. Data briefing prepared by the West Midlands Cancer Intelligence Unit (WMCIU).
Augmented cancer registration for CNS tumours has the potential to transform our knowledge for this group of patients. This data briefing was prepared by the NCIN CNS Site-Specific Clinical Reference Group.
The recorded incidence of soft tissue sarcomas has increased over the past 18 years, although this may be due to improved reporting. Incidence by morphology varies on a very short timescale and is likely to reflect improving diagnostic techniques. 5-year survival is only 51%, and has not changed significantly over the 12 years analysed. This data briefing was prepared by West Midlands Cancer Intelligence Unit (WMCIU).
There has been an increase in the incidence of cervical cancer in women aged under 35 since the late 1990’s. Over this time there has also been a steady fall in the coverage of screening in women of this age group; however in the last two years coverage has increased. It is important that this trend continues, so that the number of women who develop cervical cancer may be reduced. Data briefing prepared by Trent Cancer Registry and NHS Cancer Screening Programmes.
There was a concern that the incidence of pancreatic cancer in patients under 50 might be increasing. As these groups are often considered at low risk of pancreatic cancer the concern was that a cohort of adults might be at higher risk and that they might be receiving a late diagnosis and therefore not receiving timely treatment. This briefing investigates whether the incidence of pancreatic cancer is increasing in the younger age groups. Data briefing prepared by Thames Cancer Registry.
Cancers of the liver and gallbladder are rare in the UK. Primary liver cancers arise in the liver and need to be distinguished from secondary cancers which have metastased from elsewhere in the body. Known risk factors for primary liver cancer are infection with Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C as well as cirrhosis, excessive alcoholconsumption, smoking and diabetes. Known risk factors for gallbladder cancer are gallstones, cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder) and obesity. Data briefing prepared by Thames Cancer Registry.
The incidence of lower oesophageal cancer is around four times higher in males than females. There appears to be some geographical variation in the incidence of this cancer across England that warrants further investigation. Data briefing prepared by Thames Cancer Registry.
This briefing looks at the time trends in 1-year and 3-year relative survival for men and women in England diagnosed with oral cavity cancer between 1990-92 and 2005-07. The Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007 (IMD 2007) is used to examine how the survival rates vary in men and women diagnosed in the period 2004 to 2006 across areas with varied deprivation levels. Data briefing prepared by Oxford Cancer Intelligence Unit.
There is a large reduction with age in the percentage of patients receiving a major resection, even for patients over 50. For patients aged 80 and over, less than 2% had a record of a major resection for six of the thirteen cancer sites analysed. Data briefing prepared by NCIN.
See the full report on NHS treated cancer patients receiving major surgical resections (2011) on our reports page.
23% of newly diagnosed cancer patients came through as emergency presentations. For almost all cancer types, one-year survival rates were much lower for patients presenting as emergencies than for those presenting via other routes. Data briefing prepared on behalf of NCIN by Avon Somerset and Wiltshire Cancer Services.
This data briefing is accompanied by a technical supplement which describes the methods, algorithms and data quality issues in more detail.
In the UK mesothelioma is five times more common in men than in women. The incidence of mesothelioma is still increasing, and is expected to peak in about 15 years. Survival from mesothelioma is improving but remains very low and varies by area of diagnosis. Data briefing prepared by Thames Cancer Registry.
Bone sarcomas are more likely to affect males than females, with 2 peaks of incidence in early adolescence and the elderly. Osteosarcoma is the most common type of primary bone tumour. Survival rates have increased steadily over the past 25 years. Data briefing prepared by West Midlands Cancer Intelligence Unit.
Breast cancer patients are more likely to be affluent than deprived. Affluent patients are more likely to have a screen detected breast cancer. The most deprived patients have a higher mastectomy rates and receive less immediate reconstruction. Data briefing prepared by West Midlands Cancer Intelligence Unit.
Elderly breast cancer patients are less likely to receive surgical treatment or radiotherapy than younger patients. Data briefing prepared by West Midlands Cancer Intelligence Unit.
There are ethnic variations in the age, route of presentation and tumour characteristics of breast cancer patients in England. Patients known to be black are younger, less likely to be screen-detected and have worse prognosis tumours. Data briefing prepared by West Midlands Cancer Intelligence Unit.
Prostate cancer survival is related to stage at diagnosis. The relative survival for men with advanced and metastatic tumours is markedly worse than for localised tumours. Survival is best for men aged 60-69 at diagnosis. Data briefing prepared by South West Public Health Observatory.
In the last ten years the directly age-standardised registration rate for malignant melanoma in England has increased from 9.3 to 14.7 per 100,000 people. More complete registration of skin cancers would support service delivery and inform the development of a national prevention initiative. Data briefing prepared by South West Public Health Observatory.
The first data briefing produced in conjunction with a lead cancer registry shows how relative survival rates differ for colorectal cancer dependent on stage at diagnoses. Data briefing prepared by Northern and Yorkshire Cancer Registry and Information Service.