NPaCA Quarterly Data Dashboard

The purpose of the National Pancreatic Cancer Audit (NPaCA) is to evaluate the patterns of care and outcomes for patients with pancreatic cancer in England and Wales, and to support services to improve the quality of care for these patients. More details of the audit and scope can be found on our web page.

NPaCA is part of the National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre (NATCAN), the home of the ten national cancer audits in England and Wales. This national centre of excellence was established to strengthen cancer services by evaluating the process of diagnosis and treatment, and outcomes in multiple cancer sites.

These NATCAN interactive dashboards are the product of a year-long development process that took place during 2024. Following a successful pilot project by the National Lung Cancer Audit (NLCA) project team, NATCAN formed a working group to review user feedback, refine the design and roll out interactive dashboards across all new audits. During this first phase of development, feedback was incorporated from funders (HQIP and NHSE), members of the NLCA Clinical Reference Group, members of the NLCA PPI groups and all NATCAN audit team members.

These dashboards are subject to ongoing iterative development and we therefore welcome suggestions and feedback, which can help guide changes made in future releases.

A second phase of development is planned for 2025, during which we will seek feedback more broadly, consulting with a wide range of stakeholders, including PPI representatives, to ensure the dashboards continue to meet the needs of our end users.

This quarterly report provides information on:

1. The quality (completeness) of key data items captured in the rapid cancer registration data for people diagnosed in NHS trusts with pancreatic cancer in England between 1st April 2021 and 31st March 2024, at NHS trust level. This information is intended to highlight to trusts where data submissions to COSD could be improved to enable better reporting on performance indicators in the future.
2. A range of performance indicators for people diagnosed in NHS trusts with pancreatic cancer in England between 1st July 2021 and 30th June 2023, at NHS trust and Cancer Alliance levels. This information is intended to provide a more current view of performance, compared to the annual State of the Nation report, and to track changes on a quarterly basis going forward.

Click on the button below to view the Quarterly Report

Access the dashboard here

Data sources used in this report:

For this quarterly report, the core dataset used was the Rapid Cancer Registration Dataset (RCRD). This dataset is compiled mainly from COSD records and is made available more quickly than the complete cancer registration dataset. However, the speed of production means that the range of data items is limited and several standard data items in the complete registration dataset are unavailable. It also does not have complete coverage of all patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in England during the reporting period. For more information regarding the RCRD, including the data dictionary, visit the RCRD webpage maintained by NHS England.

This NPaCA report allocates records to NHS organisations based on the “trust at diagnosis” recorded within the RCRD dataset. Diagnoses allocated to The Christie or The Clatterbridge are included in their respective Cancer Alliance figures but are not reported at trust-level, as these tertiary centres typically do not diagnose pancreatic cancer.

What should a trust do if their data completeness is below target levels?

NDRS has regional Data Liaison Managers who support NHS teams submitting cancer data to NDRS with advice and support on data improvement initiatives. We encourage trusts to get in touch with this team for support and advice. Contact details are found here.

For any queries relating to the audit, please email: [email protected]