New medicines are in development that may reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and improve survival after treatment for early breast cancer. NHS cancer services in Leeds and Edinburgh need strong evidence on the of the current quality of care prior to adopting new treatments for their patients that may risk disrupting this quality.
While clinical trials can provide much of this evidence, there is also a need to provide evidence on the current ‘real-world’ patient population, standard treatments and current outcomes that are considered quality metrics in the patient populations serviced by the current cancer service provided by the NHS in Edinburgh and Leeds.
The project will generate a description of the current early breast cancer patient pathway in Leeds and Edinburgh. The anonymised Leeds data will be sent to Edinburgh for analysis. The analysis takes place within the NHS by NHS staff, with only a summary report that does not contain individual patient data being released for use by NHS cancer services. This project is an extension of a previous service evaluation undertaken in NHS Lothian only.
The project output will enable the NHS to make better informed decisions on the place of future medicines to ensure the NHS is providing high quality care to the patients it serves.
