Module 5

Overview

The core cancer survival benchmarking study highlighted that observed survival differences might partly be explained by a group of patients who die shortly after diagnosis.

An international team, led by Dr Jem Rashbass (Public Health England), Dr Mick Peake (Public Health England) and Dr Eva Morris (University of Leeds, UK) is exploring this topic, working across two complementary workstreams.

The first workstream
The first workstream will explore how differences in cancer registry practices and available data sources between countries might affect international comparisons, particularly those focusing on the first few months after diagnosis.

The team have built an online simulation model based on information provided from cancer registry teams in all jurisdictions. This allows users to adjust a number of key fields, including date of diagnosis, tumour site and the proportion of patients diagnosed at different stages, and measure any impact on 1-year cancer survival. 

Access the online simulation model.

The second workstream

The second workstream is testing the hypothesis that patients who die shortly after diagnosis are more likely to be living with one or more health condition(s) - comorbidities - which affect whether they receive optimal treatment and the chances of surviving their cancer.

This study is focussing on lung cancer to begin with and is linking routinely collected data from hospitals, cancer registries and, where available, clinical audits.

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