COVID-19 > Diagnosis and treatment information for cancer patients in England during the COVID-19 pandemic
COVID-19 Rapid Cancer Registration and Treatment Data Dashboard
An overview of rapid cancer registration and related treatment data during the COVID-19 pandemic, at England and Cancer Alliance level. This includes estimates of the number of diagnoses of cancer, the volume of surgical tumour resection procedures undertaken and the proportion of patients receiving a surgical tumour resection, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy
SACT COVID-19 dashboard
An overview of systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) activity during the COVID19 pandemic using the SACT dataset, at England and Cancer Alliance level, offering more specific details of SACT activity.
RTDS COVID-19 dashboard
An overview of the radiotherapy delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic using the Radiotherapy Dataset, at England and Cancer Alliance level, offering more specific details of radiotherapy activity.
COVID-19 Cancer Equity Data Packs
An overview of urgent referral and first treatment activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, broken down by patient deprivation, age, sex and ethnicity. This monthly data is also available by tumour type, and at England and regional level.
NDRS is undertaking a number of core projects aimed at providing near realtime data for England to support clinical and policy decision making in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from the Rapid Cancer Registrations Dataset (RCRD), Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) dataset and Radiotherapy Dataset (RTDS).
Further information and NDRS data releases related to COVID-19 are available here.
What treatment information is included in these dashboards?
The COVID-19 Rapid Cancer Registration and Treatment Data Dashboard reports treatment proportion data, for surgical tumour resection, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and combinations of these three treatments. This data is based on estimated cancer diagnoses, obtained from the RCRD dataset, reporting the proportion of diagnoses who were recorded as receiving each treatment. The data is reported by RCRD diagnosis date, with the cancer group and patient or tumour breakdowns based on information recorded in the RCRD, which is largely obtained from the Cancer Outcomes and Services dataset (COSD). This data is also available with further detail via the Cancerstats2 platform (for those with nhs.net).
The COVID-19 Rapid Cancer Registration and Treatment Data Dashboard also reports surgical tumour resection activity, by date of surgery. This is based on COSD and Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data, with cancer groups based on the information recorded alongside the surgical tumour resection procedure and age group based on age at surgery. This data is also available with further detail via the Cancerstats2 platform (for those with nhs.net).
The Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy COVID-19 Dashboard contains data based on reporting of SACT from all NHS England chemotherapy providers via the SACT dataset. It offers multiple, more detailed views of systemic anti-cancer therapy activity, including patient, regimen, and administration level counts. Monthly counts are reported based on the date of treatment and are available at national and Cancer Alliance level. Data breakdowns on tumour grouping, age (at time of treatment), intent of treatment, treatment modality and route of administration are available. Age and tumour type are based on reporting in the SACT data and may differ from other datasets. This data is also available with further detail via the Cancerstats2 platform (for those with nhs.net).
The Radiotherapy Dataset COVID-19 Dashboard is based on reporting of cancer radiotherapy activity from NHS Trusts via the RTDS dataset. This dashboard offers more detailed data on radiotherapy activity, which is measured by counts of unique treatment episodes. Data is reported by the month the treatment occurred. The data is reported at national and Cancer Alliance level and contains added information on tumour grouping, age (at time of treatment), fractionation category and intent of treatment. Age and tumour type are based on reporting in the RTDS data and may differ from other datasets. This data is also available with further detail via the Cancerstats2 platform (for those with nhs.net).
The COVID-19 Cancer Equity Data Packs report on the volume of first definitive treatment for new primary cancers, using Cancer Waiting Times (CWT) data. Treatment here is based on date of treatment start, with urgent referral the date first seen in secondary care. Any differences between treatment volumes in the published official statistics and the volumes presented in this pack are because:
- Data was extracted from the CWT system at a slightly different time.
- Data included is based on England residents only.
- Additional logic has been applied to remove referrals where some of the information required for the equity analysis is missing or there are potential data quality issues, for example cases with a mismatch between the suspected cancer referral type and sex, and suspected cancer referral type and age.
- The equity packs present volumes using working day adjustments; this differs from the published CWT official statistics, which do not apply a working day adjustment.
