There’s a reason they call it the Big C; not only does cancer categorically take its toll on your wellness, and the wellbeing of your loved ones who take care of you, but cancer is huge. According to Cancer Research UK, there are more than 200 different types of cancer and over 60 different organs in the body where a cancer can develop. Simply keeping track of all the different cancers is tricky for wellness experts, but add in the individual treatments too and you have a nightmare on your hands. However, the NHS is set to change all this, by implementing a new system which could help doctors keep track of individual cancer cases, and, ultimately, save lives.
Millions of patient records with details about individual cancer treatments have been compiled into a single database, which will form the biggest cancer registration service in the world. Now, cancer specialists across the country will have instant access to detailed clinical data, which will help them to make informed decisions on how to treat patients. In the past five years, the new service has collected 11 million historical records dating back 30 years, as well as information on all 350,000 cancers affecting people living in England.
The record, which receives monthly data from every NHS Trust, was created by the Cancer Registration Service at Public Health England, and announced at the Cancer Outcome Conference in Brighton last week. Jem Rashbass, who leads the Cancer Registration Service, commented that the new database ‘is game changing. In effect, every cancer patient has a rare disease that is different in some way from another cancer. This allowed us to carry out refined searched to see how other tumours have responded to identify the optimum treatment as early as possible.’
According to Emma Greenwood, Cancer Research UK’s head of policy development, the database is “great news”. She explained, ‘It means we have all the UK’s cancer information in one place, making us well equipped to provide the highest quality care for every cancer patient. It’ll be easier and quicker to further cancer research, and will speed up work to deliver personalised cancer medicine to patients in the future.’