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1. Main facts and figures
- in 2017, 52.2% of new cancer diagnoses in England were made at an early stage (at stage 1 or 2), down from 52.6% in 2016
- between 2016 and 2017, the percentage of new cancer diagnoses made at an early stage decreased in all ethnic groups except Black and Other
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data measures the percentage of new cases of cancer that were diagnosed at stage 1 or stage 2 (referred to here as ‘early stage’). You can read more about cancer stages on the NHS website.
The data only includes the following types of cancer:
- bladder
- breast
- colorectal
- kidney
- lung
- non-Hodgkin lymphoma
- ovarian
- prostate
- skin melanoma
- uterus
Estimates are rounded to 1 decimal point.
Not included in the data
Data is not included if it is from an area where information is available for fewer than 70% of cases.
The ethnic groups used in the data
Data is shown for 6 aggregated ethnic groups:
- Asian
- Black
- Chinese
- Mixed
- White
- Other
This means estimates are shown for these groups as a whole. This is because the number of people surveyed was too small to make any reliable conclusions about any of the 18 ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census.
Ethnicity was not known for 5% of the patients with new cases of cancer in 2017. These patients are included in the estimates for all ethnic groups combined (‘All’).
Methodology
Increases in the early diagnosis of cancers between 2014 and 2017 may reflect both real improvements and better data quality. Comparisons between ethnic groups in the same year are more reliable than comparisons between different years.
In the data file
See Download the data for:
- unrounded estimates
- confidence intervals for each ethnic group – find out how we use confidence intervals to determine how reliable estimates are
- numerators and denominators for each ethnic group
- estimates for people whose ethnicity was not known
3. By ethnicity over time
| Ethnicity | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | |
| All | 50.7 | 52.4 | 52.6 | 52.2 |
| Asian | 52.8 | 55.7 | 55.8 | 54.8 |
| Black | 53.7 | 54.0 | 53.8 | 55.4 |
| Chinese | 51.3 | 56.2 | 56.5 | 56.4 |
| Mixed | 50.1 | 54.3 | 54.0 | 52.6 |
| White | 50.7 | 52.5 | 52.8 | 52.2 |
| Other | 49.2 | 50.2 | 53.0 | 54.2 |
| Unknown | 48.5 | 50.3 | 48.2 | 50.0 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV)
Summary of Early cancer diagnosis By ethnicity over time Summary
This data shows that:
- from 2016 to 2017, the percentage of new cancer diagnoses in England that were made at an early stage (stage 1 or 2) decreased from 52.6% to 52.2%
- in the same period, the percentage of new cancer diagnoses that were made at an early stage decreased in every ethnic group except Black and Other
- in 2017, the Chinese ethnic group had the highest percentage of cancers diagnosed at stage 1 or 2 (56.4%) – however, this is based on a relatively small number of new cancer diagnoses so it’s not possible to make reliable generalisations
4. Data sources
Source
National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS)
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
Experimental statistics
Publisher
Public Health England
Publication frequency
N/A – statistics are not published but shared with other government departments who have permission to access the data
Secondary source
Public Health Outcomes Framework - Cancer
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
Official statistics
Publisher
Public Health England
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
Cancer is a major cause of death, accounting for around a quarter of deaths in England. More than 1 in 3 people will develop cancer at some point in their life.
Diagnosis at an early stage of the cancer’s development leads to improved survival chances.
Specific public health interventions, such as screening programmes and information and education campaigns, aim to improve rates of early diagnosis.
Monitoring the proportion of cancers diagnosed at an early stage can be used as an alternative measure to assess improvements in cancer survival rates
5. Download the data
Measure, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_Type, Time, Time_Type, Geography, Geography_Type, Geography_Code, Gender, Age, Value, Value_Type, Denominator, Numerator, Confidence intervals