Partnership on Cancer Data and the Cancer Drugs Fund

The Partnership on Cancer Data is set up between NHS England and the systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) team at Public Health England. This partnership aims to use NCRAS datasets, including the information submitted by trusts to the SACT dataset on current routine care, to inform improvements in service provision and clinical practice. Specifically the work focuses on:

• ‘Outcome’ analyses - identifying variation in practice which can be used to support review of clinical practice and address any observed health inequalities
• Information to support financial and service planning
• Information to support policy development and prioritisation, as part of NHS England’s specialised commissioning work for cancer

Partnership Projects

The following key projects are delivered by the partnership team at PHE:

 1. Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF)

• Through the partnership, the team at PHE use SACT data to support the re-appraisal of treatments in the ‘new CDF’ (July 2016)
• This represents a world leading initiative to use real world data, collected in routine practice, to inform health technology assessments and commissioning decisions
• Further information and useful links are provided below

CDF general documentation

• Further background information on the aims and implementation of the CDF can be found on the NHSE website  and NICE website
• SACT CDF FAQs: These FAQs explain how SACT data is collected, monitored and analysed to support CDF treatment evaluations
• A list of drugs in the CDF which are subject to an active SACT data collection is available here. 

CDF analytical methods

• Methodologies applied when using the Systemic-Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) dataset to evaluate treatments in the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) - A methodology document detailing the current methodologies applied when using SACT data to evaluate CDF drugs. The treatment duration methodology detailed in this report applies to IV drugs, a separate methodology document has been published for oral drugs.
• Appendix A - Calculating treatment duration for IV therapies 
• Calculating treatment duration for oral drugs - Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) methodology document - A methodology document detailing the current methodologies applied when using SACT data to calculate treatment duration for oral drugs
• Appendix A - Oral treatment duration calculations Appendix B - Oral treatment duration caveats

 2. Medicines Optimisation CQUIN 

• The Medicines Optimisation CQUIN was implemented 2017 to 2018 and 2018 to 2019 financial years. NHSE agreed financial incentives to improve completeness and quality of key SACT data items in six target areas
• MO CQUIN SACT data improvement guidance - July 2018 for 2018 to 2019 financial year can be found here – (updated in light of the new SACT data submission process)
• SACT MO CQUIN reports are available on Cancer Stats2. These reports allow trusts to monitor performance against CQUIN targets

3. National dose banding report

• NHSE have implemented a National Dose Banding initiative
• This initiative aims to standardise chemotherapy doses to reduce wastage. As these doses tend to be ready made it also reduces the waiting time for patients within the chemotherapy unit.
• SACT National dose banding report is available on Cancer Stats2
• This report shows drug administrations inside and outside national dose bands from January 2015 to present
• It allows trust to monitor and understand the implementation of the NHSE National Dose Banding initiative.