Identifying Cancer Recurrence within Patient Care Pathways
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Identifying Cancer Recurrence within Patient Care Pathways across Linked National Clinical Datasets
IRAS ID
310352
Contact name
Kate Walker
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
For patients having curative for their cancer, the aim of treatment is to get rid of the cancer without it coming back years later. For these patients, cancer recurrence is the most important outcome of care. Cancer recurrence is a key outcome in research of primary cancer treatments. Treatment options for cancer are increasingly complex and there are growing gaps in evidence on the best treatment combinations. Data on cancer
recurrence is needed to address these gaps and to ensure all patients receive the best care.Routinely collected digital healthcare data can be used to identify cancer patients but cannot currently
be used to detect cancer recurrence. Studies using these types of data are therefore unable to use cancer
recurrence as an outcome.
National clinical data on cancer recurrence is needed to be able to compare treatment options in all
patients, not just the selected groups who are included in randomised clinical trials. It would also allow
comparisons of treatments that are unlikely to be assessed in randomised clinical trials.With more information collected in national clinical datasets, we can build a detailed picture of patient
care. Patients who are treated with an aim to cure them of their cancer tend to have predictable patterns of care. If their cancer returns, this will appear in the data as a change in frequency and type of
hospital visits, tests and treatments. A group of clinical experts will use evidence from research, clinical
guidelines and clinical audit to help to develop clinical rules which will identify cancer recurrence in the
data. Sophisticated computer science methods, known as ‘machine learning’, offer alternative ways to
detect patterns of care that tell us it is very likely the cancer has recurred.The research will develop methods to identify cancer recurrence for bowel cancer and find out how well the methods work for identifying breast and prostate cancer
recurrence.REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/HRA/5559
Date of REC Opinion
20 Jan 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion