PHE - Big data driving earlier cancer diagnosis in England

The ‘Routes to Diagnosis’ big data project, which covers more than 2 million patients diagnosed with cancer from 2006 to 2013, details how people are diagnosed, with associated survival rates, for 56 different cancer sites. This data is a vital tool to help improve early diagnosis of cancer.

The percentage of cancers diagnosed as an emergency fell from almost 25% in 2006, to 20% in 2013, despite a rise in the overall number of cases of cancer. Survival rates for cancer patients diagnosed as an emergency are much lower than through other routes.

These new figures are a boost for early diagnosis, and show “a positive trend in how cancer is diagnosed in England”, according to Julia Verne, Head of Clinical Epidemiology, Public Health England.

“These improvements in routes to cancer diagnosis follow several years of work across the sector to improve early diagnosis in England and we encourage anyone with an interest, from patients, to charities, to clinicians, to look at the data. Our work however, is not complete; while emergency presentation is declining it still remains high for cancers like liver and pancreas.”

To read the complete Routes to Diagnosis report, visit the National Cancer Intelligence Network website.