Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) data set

The SACT data set collects information on the use of systemic anti-cancer therapies across all NHS England trusts.

Systemic anti-cancer therapies, including chemotherapy, have been provided in the NHS for decades but no national recording of treatment had previously existed.

SACT treatments are increasingly successful but are ever more complex and expensive. Accurate, timely and complete data collection to support optimal use is a priority. The SACT data set is a unique tool capturing this information on a national scale.

What the SACT data set offers

The SACT data set is an important initiative with a wide range of benefits. It has been designed to:

• provide a clear picture of patterns of systemic anti-cancer therapy use across England
• understand resources required for service provision and support commissioning decisions
• link to other data sources, to provide a complete picture of the cancer patient pathway

 What the SACT data set includes

SACT contains 44 data items which cover:

• patient and tumour characteristics
• trust and consultant details
• treatment characteristics including drug names and drug combinations (regimens)
• outcome fields

SACT Information is reported by NHS trusts on the treatment of all patients with cancer

The data set includes details of:

• adult and paediatric patients
• acute inpatient, outpatient and community settings
• all solid and haematological malignancies
• patients in clinical trials

Management of the SACT data set

The SACT data set is collected by the SACT Team within the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) at NHS England. This is made possible by legal permission granted to NDRS. There are strict and careful controls ensuring that the data can only be used to inform improvements in patient care.

The SACT team is the central collation point for all SACT data submissions in England and is responsible for management and quality assurance of the data, and for providing support to submitting trusts. Along with the wider NDRS teams, the SACT team provide an analytical function to make clinically approved reports using SACT data available to key stakeholders.

The table below gives the deadline for NHS trusts to upload and submit data to the NDRS upload portal each month.

The requirements below are applicable every month:

We recommend that NHS trusts upload their file as early as possible in the month to allow plenty of time to fix errors and map regimens. Uploading a file on the last day will mean that a trust may not have time to fix errors, and therefore could be uncompliant for various measures.

If a file becomes “Ready to Submit” at any point during this process, then we advise to submit the file as early as possible.

For more details please contact the helpdesk ([email protected])

We launched the new SACT data set community on FutureNHS in August 2023. Please note this replaces the previous community on Knowledge Hub and is only available to NHS staff working within an NHS trust in England.

The community offers a space for members to make connections with other NHS trusts and access important guidance and updates from the SACT data set team. Once registered, users will have access to the community forum which provides a space to ask questions to other members and view or join discussions. They can also access important updates, information, webinar recordings and slide decks. Updates include upcoming events and the SACT data set team's 'What Happened This Month' blog on the community homepage. 

To request an invitation, please complete this short online form. You will then receive an invitation to join within 2 working days.

The SACT data set also underpins the work of the NHSE partnership on Cancer Data, and the Cancer Drugs Fund.

This partnership uses NCRAS data sets, including the information submitted by trusts to the SACT data set on current routine care, to inform improvements in service provision and clinical practice.

More information on the work of NDRS partnerships can be found on the our work section of this website. 

The SACT team in NDRS provide an analytical function to produce a range of outputs using SACT 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, including:

• the CancerStats2* reporting portal (opens in a new window) gives registered users access to interactive SACT 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.

• the SACT time to first treatment (TTFT) dashboard, reports the time taken for patients to be treated with SACT drugs that have been approved for routine commissioning use in the NHS following NICE approval. The CancerStats2* TTFT dashboard (opens in a new window) contains results at trust and cancer alliance level, alongside a summary measure for England. The public-facing TTFT dashboard contains a summary measure for England.

• case-mix adjusted 30-day mortality post-SACT analysis: CMAR workbook  - the SACT analyst team has published several workbooks containing case-mix adjusted 30 day post-SACT mortality rates for a range of cancer sites, using data reported by NHS trusts in England through their monthly routine SACT data uploads

The new 30-day mortality post-SACT CMAR report launched in April 2023 and now publicly available.

Previous CMAR workbook releases are available through an interactive web app on the CancerData platform. 

Explore more outputs and the journal library for publications produced by the NDRS.

* Please note that the CancerStats2 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.

The SACT team at NDRS is here to help and values feedback and suggestions for improvements to SACT.

Our data liaison team provides tailored support to NHS trusts with any issues around submitting data and to support improvements in data quality and completeness. If you would like to contact the data liaison team, then please email [email protected] 

The SACT Helpdesk is available for any questions and feedback via [email protected] or on 01865 458350.

Additional Resources

There are lots of resources available to support users with the collection of SACT data as part of the SACT data set.

Click on the boxes below in the downloads section to view the relevant documentation:

*Please note we are in the process of creating html versions of pdf documents and we will publish these as soon as possible.

NDRS is conducting a review of the SACT v3 data set and reached out to stakeholders in Summer 2023 to collect their comments and suggestions for future changes. This feedback will play a crucial role in shaping the future version of the SACT data set and will help to identify improvements that we should consider.

The feedback form closed on Friday 11 August 2023.

We are now reviewing the comments we have received to identify changes and improvements to be made with the planned launch of the new data set scheduled from April 2025.