Chart instructions
The Brain Tumour Data Dashboard lets you explore up -to-date, population level data about the brain tumours diagnosed in England between 2013 and 2015. Using the tool you can select different groups of patients to view in the charts below. In these charts the number of patients for every 100 diagnoses is displayed as images of people. Patients have been grouped by date of diagnosis, type of tumour, age, gender, and region in England.
For each group of patients you can explore the different routes to diagnosis, the proportion of those who received chemotherapy, the proportion who received radiotherapy, as well as the survival of the patients within the group. For more information about what these metrics mean, please see the descriptions below.
There are two dashboards in this tool so that you can compare different groups of patients side by side.
The tool is best used on a laptop or tablet rather than mobile phone.
To use the interactive chart to select a group of patients and explore different metrics:
- Select the year of diagnosis by moving the slider from left to right.
- Select your filters of interest from the four drop down lists in the following order:
- Site Diagnosed
- Age at Diagnosis
- Region of England
- Sex of Patient
- Repeat for the second dashboard to select a comparison group if desired
- Both charts will refresh accordingly with each selection.
Please note that data for some groups of patients is not available because there are not enough patients within these groups for data to be released safely following guidelines from Public Health England.
Chart Descriptions
Routes to Diagnosis
Under the ‘Routes to Diagnosis’ tab, you can explore the ways patients have been diagnosed with brain cancers. There are many ways, or routes, for cancers to be diagnosed in the NHS. A ‘route to diagnosis’ is the series of events between a patient and the healthcare system that leads to a diagnosis of cancer. The routes include:
-
- Two Week Wait
Patients are urgently referred by their GP for suspected cancer via the Two Week Wait system and are seen by a specialist within 2 weeks where they are diagnosed. These patients are represented in dark green.
-
- GP referral
Diagnosis via a GP referral includes routine and urgent referrals where the patient was not referred under the Two Week Wait system. These patients are represented in light green.
-
- Emergency Presentation
Cancers can be diagnosed via emergency situations such as via A&E, emergency GP referral, emergency transfer or emergency admission. These patients are represented in red.
-
- Outpatient
Outpatient cancer diagnoses include diagnoses via an elective route which started with an outpatient appointment that is either a self-referral or consultant to consultant referral. (It does not include those under the Two Week Wait referral system). These patients are represented in purple.
-
- Inpatient elective
Diagnosis via an inpatient elective route is where diagnosis occurs after the patient has been admitted into secondary care from a waiting list, or where the admission is booked or planned. These patients are represented in blue.
-
- Death Certificate Only
Diagnoses made by Death Certificate Only are made where there is no more information about the cancer diagnosis other than the cancer related death notifications. The date of diagnosis is the same as that of the date of death. These patients are represented in black**
- Unknown
For some patients with a cancer diagnosis, there is no relevant data available to understand the route to diagnosis. These patients are represented in brown.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment
In these charts you can also explore the proportions of patients who received chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Under the ‘Treatment – Chemotherapy’ tab, the proportion of patients diagnosed with a brain cancer who receive chemotherapy is represented in green. Under the ‘Treatment – Radiotheraphy’ tab, the proportion of patients who received radiotherapy is also represented in green. On both charts, the proportion of patients diagnosed with a brain cancer who did not receive chemotherapy or radiotherapy is represented in grey.
Survival
You can also explore the survival of patients diagnosed with brain cancer in these charts.
Under the ‘Survival’ tab, the proportion of patients who survived more than 12 months is represented in green; those who survived 9 – 12 months represented in light grey; those who survived 6-9 months in dark grey , those who survived 3 – 6 months in brown people, and those who survived 0 – 3 months in black.
Support Specialist, children and families
