Categorising cancers to enable tailored care planning through a secondary analysis of cancer registration data in the UK

Objectives

The aim of this study is to categorise cancers into broad groups based on clusters of common treatment aims, experiences and outcomes to provide a numerical framework for understanding the services required to meet the needs of people with different cancers. This framework will enable a high-level overview of care and support requirements for the whole cancer population.

Setting and participants

People in the UK with 1 of 20 common cancers; an estimated 309 000 diagnoses in 2014, 1 679 000 people diagnosed in a 20-year period and still living in 2010 and 135 000 cancer deaths in 2014.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Survival and stage at diagnosis data were reviewed alongside clinically led assumptions to identify commonalities and cluster cancer types into three groups. The three cancer groups were then described using incidence, prevalence and mortality data collected and reported by UK cancer registries. This was then reviewed, validated and refined following consultation.

Results

Group 1 includes cancers with the highest survival; 5-year survival is over 80%. Group 3 cancers have shorter term survival. Five-year survival is not >20% for any cancer in this group and many do not survive over a year. Group 2 includes cancers where people typically live more than a year but are less likely to live >5 years. We estimate that the majority (64%) of people living with cancer (20 year prevalence) have a cancer type in group 1 'longer term survival', but significant minorities of people have cancers in group 2 'intermediate survival' (19%) and group 3 'shorter term survival' (10%).

Conclusions

Every person with cancer has unique needs shaped by a multitude of factors including comorbidities, treatment regimens, patient preferences, needs, attitudes and behaviours. However, to deliver personalised care, there needs to be a high-level view of potential care requirements to support service planning.

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