Radiotherapy Data Set (RTDS)

The RTDS standard (DAPB0111) is an update to an existing standard that has required all NHS Acute Trust providers of radiotherapy services in England or private facilities where delivery is funded by the NHS, to collect and submit standardised data monthly against a nationally defined data set since 2009. The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) are responsible for the ongoing maintenance, development and implementation.

There are currently 51 NHS Acute Trusts delivering external beam radiotherapy in England, many of which are also delivering at least one form of non-external beam radiotherapy. In addition, there are a large number of NHS funded sites who deliver molecular radiotherapy treatments.

The purpose of the standard is to collect consistent and comparable data across all English providers of radiotherapy or private facilities where delivery is funded by the NHS, to produce a timely and definitive analytical resource of radiotherapy services across England.

This new version structures the data requested into the pathways expected of a radiotherapy patient, including an episode, prescription, plan, attendance and exposure sections.

This has in turn allowed the data set to be futureproofed, with the addition of SNOMED CT, unique radiotherapy coding (not currently found within SNOMED CT or OPCS), the accurate recording of radiotherapy beam type and the actual measurement type to support the actual absorbed radiation dose.

Careful consideration was also made to improve the recording of Proton Therapy (within RTDS), which is now being delivered in Manchester and in London at the University College London Hospital (UCLH). The ability to report clinical trials, treatment intent (in more granular detail), route of admission and specialist radiotherapy treatments were forefront in the many decisions made throughout the initial draft development process.

Important new documentation

There are lots of new documentation that will be required to understand the changes to RTDS v6.0 available from the download section.

In addition, there is further supporting documentation available at the following sites.

Find more guidance on the RTDS on the NHS digital website including the: 

• specification
• change request
• implementation guide
• information standard notice

And the RTDS v6.0 portal user guide can be found on the NDRS API upload portal. (this opens in a new window and requires an NHS HSCN network)

Data files are required to be submitted monthly, 20 working days after the end of the month for England, to be uploaded to RTDS as per the schedules below. 

Please note that files containing data must be uploaded to the portal and all errors on the file must be resolved.

Feedback reports for the data submitted are available through the CancerStats2 website - (this opens in a new page)

Please note that this platform requires an N3/HSCN secure network connection. To ensure the best user experience, we encourage the use of modern web browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Edge to access the platform. A small number of platform users have reported issues when opening reports using Internet Explorer.

We are here to help and value feedback and suggestions for how we can improve RTDS. 

RTDS Helpdesk

RTDS has two main points of contact. If you need any help or support with uploading data or queries regarding implementation, these should initially be raised with the RTDS helpdesk as follows:

• RTDS helpdesk email address – [email protected]
• RTDS helpdesk telephone number – 01865 458350

RTDS Key Contacts

The following are a list of key contacts responsible for the development and management of the data set:

NDRS data liaison team

The Data Liaison team within the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) has a wealth of knowledge on cancer pathways and processes within NHS Trusts. NHS teams submitting data to NDRS can seek advice, support and find out more about the data improvement initiatives available to them directly from the regional Data Liaison Managers:

RTDS Newsletter

If you don't currently receive the newsletter and would like to be on the mailing list, please can you use this link to join the RTDS newsletter mailing list. When the next newsletter is published you will then automatically be sent this.

The RTDS team in NDRS provide an analytical function to produce a range of outputs using radiotherapy data and make these available to key stakeholders. We share our outputs with the clinical community and seek feedback to ensure they align with clinical needs.

Data collected is used to create a number of data tools, dashboards, and reports:

• the RTDS Dose and Fractionation dashboard presents RTDS activity metrics relating to patients treated with radiotherapy in England from January 2019 to the latest data available. The dashboard includes episode counts which can be viewed nationally, by cancer alliance, and by integrated care board. Counts can be broken down by tumour group, age group, deprivation quintile, ethnicity, intent of treatment, fractionation category, and dose fractionation schedule. This is publicly available and is updated quarterly.
• the Utilisation of Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy treatment (IMRT) across England dashboard presents the number of IMRT episodes delivered between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2023 for this type of conformal radiotherapy, which delivers precise radiation doses to a tumour while minimising the dose to surrounding tissue.  This is publicly available and is updated annually. 
• the radiotherapy delivery in England dashboard presents radiotherapy activity across England from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2023. It includes therapies delivered externally from outside the body (teletherapy) and internally from within the body (brachytherapy) for the treatment of cancer and certain non-cancerous conditions. This is publicly available and is updated annually. 

Restricted access tools - the CancerStats2* reporting portal (opens in a new window) gives registered users access to interactive RTDS data reports. The portal does not provide identifiable data but it does have detailed local data. To ensure this data is secure it is only available through the NHS N3 network. Users must register on the homepage.

* Please note that the CancerStats2 platform requires an N3/HSCN secure network connection. 

*We are working hard to covert these PDFs to HTML and will upload the new versions as soon as they are available