Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) data set

The SACT data set collects information on the use of systemic anti-cancer therapies across all NHS Trusts in England and was approved (in June 2025), by NHS England’s Data Alliance Partnership Board for an update to SACT v4.0. This update will go live for data collection in April 2026 and will improve data collection, reduce burden and make the data set clinically accurate for the next four years.

SACT data collection in England commenced in April 2012 and is a major part of cancer treatment, with new types of drugs being introduced capable of targeting individual cancers. Historically, the recording of SACT activity was held within individual patients' notes.

Systemic anti-cancer therapies have been proven to be successful as a treatment but are ever more complex and expensive. Accurate, timely and complete data collection is a priority and supported through electronic clinical data collection.

The SACT Information Standard addresses the requirement to standardise the recording of SACT treatment and outcomes through electronic systems. Version 4.0 is an extension to the standard, introducing new data, correcting existing data (for better analysis) and removing redundant data, to reduce the burden of data collection wherever possible.

What the SACT data set offers

The SACT data set is an important initiative with a wide range of benefits. It has been designed to:

• provide a clear picture of patterns of systemic anti-cancer therapy use across England
• understand resources required for service provision and support commissioning decisions
• link to other data sources, to provide a complete picture of the cancer patient pathway

What the SACT data set includes

The SACT data set will increase to 60 data items in v4.0 from April 2026. The data set will be divided into 7 distinct sections as follows:

• linkage - patient identity details
• demographic and care professional details
• clinical status
• regimen
• cycle
• drug details
• outcome

Full details of the new data set (including all data items, changes and structure), user guide and technical guide can be found in the 'Downloads' section.

SACT Information is reported by NHS Trusts on the treatment of all patients with cancer

The data set includes details of:

• adult and paediatric patients
• acute inpatient, outpatient and community settings
• all solid and haematological malignancies
• patients in clinical trials

Management of the SACT data set

The SACT data set is collected by the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS). This is made possible by legal permission granted to NDRS, through the National Disease Registries Directions 2021. However, there are strict and careful controls ensuring that the data can only be used to inform improvements in patient care.

NDRS provide the central collation point for all SACT data submissions in England and is responsible for both the management and quality assurance of the data, and for providing support to submitting Trusts.

NDRS provide an analytical function to produce a range of outputs using SACT data and make these available to key stakeholders. We share our outputs with the clinical community and seek feedback to ensure they align with clinical needs.

Data collected is used to create several data tools, dashboards, and reports and we have provided more detail below.

CancerStats2 report platform (NHS staff only)

Please note, CancerStats2 is an additional tool available to NHS staff with an account.

The CancerStats2 reporting platform (opens in a new window) gives registered users access to interactive SACT data reports. The portal does not provide identifiable data but it does have detailed local data. 

The CancerStats2 portal has now become the home of SACT analysis reporting and contains many additional reports as follows:

• SACT activity
• data completeness and quality reports
• dose banding
• specific CTYA data analysis
• time to first treatment

In addition, there is also analysis and reports around the cancer drugs fund.

To access CancerStats2, you need to be on a Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) and have a valid user account. If you feel you need access to these reports, please speak to your regional Data Liaison Manager and they will support you with this.

Reviewing national SACT activity

The public-facing SACT Activity dashboard is updated quarterly and presents SACT activity metrics relating to patients treated with SACT in England from January 2019 to the latest data available.

The dashboard includes patient, regimen, new regimen, and drug administration counts. Counts can be viewed nationally, by cancer alliance, and by integrated care board and can be broken down by tumour group, age group, deprivation quintile, ethnicity, intent or treatment, and administration route. 

The CancerStats2 activity dashboard (opens in a new window) contains results at Trust and Cancer Alliance level, alongside more detailed activity metrics for England.  

Assessing the 'Time To First Treatment' for new SACT drugs

The SACT 'Time To First Treatment (TTFT) dashboard' reports the time taken for patients to be treated with SACT drugs that have been approved for routine commissioning use in the NHS following NICE approval.  The public-facing TTFT dashboard contains results at Trust and Cancer Alliance level, alongside a summary measure for England.

30-day mortality post-SACT analyses

The public '30-day mortality post-SACT Case-Mix Adjusted Rates (CMAR) report, includes patients diagnosed with cancer in England and treated with SACT. Each report focuses on a defined cancer type and treatment period and uses data submitted by NHS Trusts in England through their monthly routine SACT data uploads. The CMAR reports use funnel plots and tables to show rates of deaths within 30 days of SACT treatment for NHS Trusts in England. 

By accessing the 30-day mortality post-SACT CMAR dashboard you can find 30-day mortality reports by cancer site and find out more about the analyses. 

We also provide a quarterly '30-day mortality post-SACT' data feed (to NHS Trusts who request to receive the information). The Rapid Data Review provides each NHS Trust with a list of patients who, according to the data we hold, have died within 30 days of receiving SACT during the previous quarter. This information can be used to support internal Trust mortality reviews. 

If you work at an NHS Trust and would like to find out more, please speak to your regional Data Liaison Manager and they will support you with this.

Notes:

• the CancerStats2 platform requires an N3/HSCN secure network connection
• you can explore more outputs and the journal library for publications produced by the NDRS using the imbedded links
  • digital.nhs.uk/ndrs/data/data-outputs
  • digital.nhs.uk/ndrs/our-work/journal-library

NDRS data is made available to authorised analysts and researchers under our data access arrangements through the Data Access and Release Service (DARS). 

Find out how you can access SACT and NDRS data on the Access to NDRS data webpage. 

The table below gives the deadline for NHS Trusts to upload and submit data to the NDRS API upload portal each month (nww.api.encore.nhs.uk/).

The requirements below are applicable every month:

We recommend that NHS Trusts upload their file as early as possible in the month to allow plenty of time to fix errors and map regimens. Uploading a file on the last day will mean that a Trust may not have time to fix errors, and therefore could be non-compliant for various measures.

If a file becomes “Ready to Submit” at any point during this process, then we advise the NHS Trust to submit the file as early as possible.

For more details, please contact your regional Data Liaison Manager and they will support you with this.

The SACT data set community was launched on FutureNHS in August 2023 (The SACT data set community - Futures). Please note this replaces the previous community on the Knowledge Hub and is only available to NHS staff working within an NHS Trust in England or via a Cancer Alliance. The community offers a space for members to make connections with other NHS Trusts and Alliances and access important guidance and updates from the SACT data set team.

Once registered, users will have access to the community forum which provides a space to ask questions to other members and view or join discussions. They can also access important updates, information, webinar recordings and slide decks. Updates include upcoming events and the SACT data set team's 'What Happened This Month' blog on the community homepage. To request an invitation, please complete our short online form, you will then receive an invitation to join, usually within 2 working days.

Each quarter, we share the latest news from the NDRS SACT data set team, including SACT reports and outputs, data set development, SACT data set Community updates, Cancer Drugs Fund updates, and SACT data set events. 

To keep up to date, subscribe to our newsletter. 

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The SACT data set also underpins the work of the NHSE partnership on Cancer Data, and the Cancer Drugs Fund.

This partnership uses data sets received and processed by NDRS, including the information submitted by Trusts to the SACT data set on current routine care, to inform improvements in service provision and clinical practice.

More information on the work of NDRS partnerships can be found on the our work section of this website. 

You can find out more about the methodologies applied when using the SACT data set to evaluate CDF treatments in the additional resources section.

The SACT team at NDRS is here to help and values feedback and suggestions for improvements to SACT.

Our team provides tailored support to NHS Trusts with any issues around submitting data and to support improvements in data quality and completeness. If you would like to contact the team, the teams contact details are below.

NDRS Data Liaison team

The Data Liaison team within the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) has a wealth of knowledge on cancer pathways and processes within NHS Trusts. NHS teams submitting data to NDRS can seek advice, support and find out more about the data improvement initiatives available to them directly from the regional Data Liaison Managers:

Trusts are roughly divided as above, but in certain circumstances they may differ. Please contact your region (as above), and you will be notified of your regional Data Liaison Manager is different.

In June 2025, NHS England’s Data Alliance Partnership Board, the governance structure that oversees the assurance and approval of information standards, gave full approval to the proposed changes for SACT v4.0.

We have now entered the implementation phase and are working closely with system suppliers to get the changes required in their systems so that the new data set can be submitted from April 2026.

The following timeframe will be used to support the implementation, data collection and outline the full conformance dates:

• implementation is between July 2025 to 31 March 2026 (8 months)
• data collection will start from 01 April 2026 (with a three-month roll-out period between 01 April 2026 to 30 June 2026)
• full conformance from 01 July 2026

Trusts are advised to speak with their system supplier or IT team at the earliest opportunity to understand the changes and any work required to commit these changes into their existing SACT reporting system.

NDRS are working on a series of webinars, which will be run in early 2026, to provide additional help, support and advice around these changes. NDRS will notify all Trusts towards the end of the autumn 2025, to outline booking arrangements and an agenda for the events.