Cancer care (CC) is a subgroup of indicators within the HCQO database. Effective cancer care such as early diagnosis, improved surgical techniques, radiation therapy and combined chemotherapy and their wider and timelier access contributes to increased survival of cancer patients.
Five-year net survival is the cumulative probability that cancer patients survive their cancer for at least five years following diagnosis, after controlling for the risks of death from other causes, and taking into account that competing risks of deaths are higher among elderly people. The period approach is used to allow estimation of five-year survival when five years of follow-up are not available. Cancer survival estimates are age-standardised with the International Cancer Survival Standard weights.
Quality control and analysis for age standardised five year net survival were performed centrally as part of the
CONCORD Programme, the global programme for the surveillance of cancer survival, led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.