Stage at diagnosis

Early stage at diagnosis is one of the most important factors affecting cancer outcomes, and promoting earlier stage at diagnosis is one of the key aims of the NHS Long-Term plan. Measuring and monitoring national staging data is crucial to understand variation and deliver evidence-based decisions.

Acknowledgement

This work uses data that has been provided by patients and collected by the NHS as part of their care and support. The data are collated, maintained and quality assured by the National Disease Registration Service, which is part of NHS England.

The tool presents the latest results for stage at diagnosis and includes the following pages:

Background and methods

A summary of the stage at diagnosis methodology and full details of the factors included in the tool.

75% ambition

This page shows the 1-year rolling percentage of all staged, stageable malignant cancers (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) diagnosed at stages 1 and 2 in England. Results are presented by Cancer Alliance and diagnosis quarter. This indicator is intended to measure progress towards the ambition that 75% of all stageable cancers will be diagnosed as stage 1 and 2 by 2028. Find out more about the government announcement on plans for earlier diagnosis for cancer patients.

Case-mix adjusted

This page shows the case-mix adjusted percentage of cancers diagnosed at stage 1 and 2, for a subset of malignant cancers in England in by sub-ICBL. The cancer sites included are those with the highest completeness of staging information. For inclusion, there must be 1,500 cancers diagnosed annually in England and an average of at least 70% of cancers having a complete stage over the past 3 years. The case-mix adjustment is for cancer site, age at diagnosis, gender and deprivation. 

Cancer site

This page presents the percentage of cancers staged in each sub-ICBL, ICB or CA by cancer site and year of diagnosis. The sites included in the case-mix adjusted percentage are presented separately, with the remaining sites included in the 75% ambition percentage included in 'other'.

Deprivation

This page presents the percentage of cancers diagnosed by stage for each level of deprivation quintile using the income domain of the IMD (Indices of Multiple Deprivation) by cancer site and year of diagnosis. Cancers with a known stage (stage 1 - 4) are included. The sites included in the case-mix adjusted percentage are presented separately, with the remaining sites included in the 75% ambition percentage included in 'other'.

Completeness

This page presents the completeness of staging data from 2013 to the most recent data available. All registered cancers are included, and information on their staging data is included. The cancers are categorised into: data quality issues, non-invasive but registrable, non-melanoma skin cancer, unstageable, malignant but missing stage and malignant staged.

The ‘percentage of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2’ indicator was developed to inform policy and to monitor the quality and effectiveness of interventions aiming to increase diagnosis at an earlier stage.

Users of the ‘percentage of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2’ indicator include government organisations, the NHS, local bodies responsible for commissioning cancer services, health policymakers, cancer charities, academics and researchers, cancer registries, the public, and the media. 

The data can be used to inform national cancer plans such as the 6 strategic priorities set out by the Independent Cancer Task Force. These include reducing Clinical Commissioning Group (now sub-ICB) variation and the ambition to increase 12 month survival to 75% by 2020 for all cancers combined. You can view the 'Achieving world-class cancer outcomes strategy for England 2015-2020' report on the Cancer Research UK website.

Building on this, the NHS Long Term Plan for cancer set a new ambition that, by 2028, the 75% of cancers will be diagnosed at stages 1 and 2, with the eventual aim that from 2028, 55,000 more people each year will survive their cancer for at least 5 years after diagnosis.  Find out more about the government announcement on plans for earlier diagnosis for cancer patients.

Further, the unadjusted data can inform the Public Health Outcomes Framework.

Please refer to the Background and methods tab.

For a more in-depth explanation of the methods used please refer to the Technical Documentation for Case-mix Adjusted Percentage of Cancers Diagnosed at Stages 1 and 2 in England

This dashboard will be updated annually.

The tool is produced by the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS). Please send any feedback or queries to [email protected] 

Please do not include sensitive or patient identifiable information.

To access the data used in the dashboard, please refer to the 'Downloads' tab within the dashboard.