Here, we report the NHS Digital data for patients diagnosed with kidney cancer (KC) in England. We explore the incidence, route to diagnosis (RTD), treatment, and survival patterns from 2013 to 2019.
Data was extracted from the Cancer Data NHS Digital portal for ICD-10 coded KC; this included cancer registry data, hospital episode statistics, and cancer waiting times data.
Registrations included 66,696 individuals with KC. Incidence of new KC diagnoses increased (8,998 in 2013, to 10,232 in 2019), but the age-standardised rates were stable (18.7 to 19.4 per 100,000 population). Almost half of patients (30,340, 45.5%) were aged 0-70 years and the cohort were most frequently diagnosed with stage 1-2 KC (n=26,297, 39.4%). Most patients were diagnosed through non-urgent GP referrals (n=16,814 (30.4%)), followed by two-week-wait (2WW) (n=15,472 (28.0%)) and emergency routes (n=11796 (21.3%)), with older patients (70+ years), stage 4 KCs, and non-specified RCC patients being significantly more likely to present through emergency route (all p<0.0001). Invasive treatment (surgery or ablation), radiotherapy, or systemic anti-cancer therapy use varied with disease stage, patient factors, and treatment network (Cancer Alliance). Survival outcomes differed by stage, histological subtype, and social deprivation class (p<0.0001). Age-standardised mortality rates did not change over the study duration, although immunotherapy usage is likely not captured in this study timeline.
The NHS Digital Resource provides useful insight about the incidence, diagnostic pathways, treatment and survival of KC patients in England and a useful benchmark for the upcoming commissioned National Kidney Cancer Audit. Route to diagnosis data may be limited by incidental diagnoses, which could confound the high proportion of 'emergency' diagnoses. Importantly, survival outcomes remained relatively unchanged.
BJU international. 2023 Jul 12 [Epub ahead of print]
S Conroy, Jwf Catto, A Bex, J Brown, J Cartledge, A Fielding, R J Jones, V Khoo, David Nicol, G D Stewart, M Sullivan, M G B Tran, R Woodward, M G Cumberbatch
Sheffield teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, Sheffield, UK., Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust, Specialist Centre for Kidney Cancer, London, UK., Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds, UK., Bladder and Renal Cancer Clinical Studies Group, National Cancer Research Institute, London, UK., Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK., Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK., Department of Surgery, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK., Department of Urology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK., Action Kidney Cancer, UK.