Cancer: Scottish data

See below for a comprehensive list of outputs produced by Public Health Scotland (PHS) using cancer and cancer-related data.

Cancer incidence in Scotland

An annual update of cancer incidence statistics in Scotland from January 1997 to December 2021. All cancer types are included. Generally, cancer incidence statistics should be interpreted within the context of long-term trends. However, examining cancer incidence in 2021 against expected rates is important to assess the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recovery.

Data available broken down by: Gender; Age group; Deprivation group; NHS board area; Time trend.

Cancer incidence projections for Scotland

Incidence projections are calculated based on current cancer incidence trends and population trends to estimate what cancer incidence might be in the future. This publication, in the form of a dashboard, presents projected data using models developed by Cancer Research UK (CRUK). The projections are based on historical trends in cancer incidence and population estimates and projections for Scotland. The dashboard provides cancer incidence projections for the period 2019 to 2040.

Data available broken down by: Gender; Time trend.

Cancer mortality

Provides some brief interpretations of the risk factors that cause cancer and changes in survival for the most common causes of cancer death. While interpretation of cancer mortality statistics should always be within the context of long term trends, these statistics provide an opportunity for cancer mortality to be considered within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data available broken down by: Gender; Age group; Deprivation group; NHS board area; Time trend.

Cancer survival statistics

This publication uses a new method of estimating cancer-specific survival – age-standardised net survival – which is considered to be the best way of understanding outcomes due to cancer itself rather than other factors (such as age and underlying background mortality). 

Data available broken down by: Gender; Age group; Time trend.

Children and young people with cancer in Scotland

This publication provides incidence, mortality, survival, prevalence, and place of death information on cancer in children (ages 0 to14) and young people (ages 15 to 24) in Scotland, using age-appropriate cancer classifications.

Data available broken down by: Gender; Age group; Time trend.

Cancer waiting times

Presents the quarterly update of Cancer Waiting Times statistics, reporting two National Standards on how long patients waited for their first cancer treatment.

Data available broken down by: NHS board area; Time trend; National target.

Place of death from cancer in Scotland

Reports on the setting where people died from cancer in Scotland, including home or private address, NHS hospital, hospice, care home and other settings.

Data available broken down by: Gender; Age group; Deprivation group; NHS board area; Time trend.

Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy activity

Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) is the treatment of cancer with medicines. SACT activity data describes the number of patients who received treatment during a period of time and how often they were in contact with SACT services to receive treatment. It gives an indication of the workload within the areas.

Data available broken down by: NHS board area; Time trend.

30-day mortality after Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT)

Using the SACT data described above, this publications shows the number and percentage of patients who died within 30 days of starting their last cycle of SACT, reported for NHS Scotland and the three regional cancer networks.

Detect Cancer Early staging data, 2022 Cancer staging data and Cancer staging data using 2018 to 2020 DCE data - the impact of COVID-19

Cancer staging is the process of determining the extent to which a cancer has developed and spread. For the majority of patients with cancer it is common practice to assign a number from 1 to 4 to a cancer. Patients diagnosed with stage 1 disease tend to have better outcomes and longer survival compared with patients diagnosed with stage 4 disease. These publications draw on the Detect Cancer Early (DCE) data to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer staging distribution.

Data available broken down by: Deprivation group; Time trend.

Cancer Quality Performance Indicators (QPIs)

(***The above link is to the login page for the Cancer QPIs dashboard and this can only be accessed by authorised users. More information on how to gain access to this dashboard can be found here: How to access the SCRIS dashboard***)

This is a series of publications using audit data from the Scottish cancer networks. The publications present performance against national Quality Performance Indicators (QPIs) in the Cancer QPIs dashboard held within the Scottish Cancer Registry and Intelligence Service (SCRIS). A different cancer type is chosen for each publication in the series.

The SCRIS dashboards provide secure access to the national cancer datasets for Scotland. This gives healthcare professionals access to a broad range of cancer-related information to help them review and plan for better cancer services and care for patients. Only authorised users can access the SCRIS dashboards. If you are not an NHS employee with authorised access to SCRIS, you can still access a wide range of published cancer statistics via the Publications area of the PHS website, including Cancer QPIs publications.

Data available broken down by: NHS board area; National target.

Scottish cervical screening programme statistics

This publication provides annual and quarterly cervical screening statistics. The report provides data on screening population coverage by age group, NHS board, deprivation and human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation status. In addition, data are presented on laboratory turnaround times and number of screening tests by NHS board and laboratory.

Data available broken down by: Age group; Deprivation group; NHS board area; Time trend.

Scottish breast screening programme statistics

This publication includes Scottish Breast Screening Programme performance standards, attendance figures, cancer detection rates, biopsy results and screening outcomes.

Data available broken down by: Age group; Deprivation group; NHS board area; Time trend.

Scottish bowel screening programme statistics

This publication provides an update to key performance indicators for the Scottish Bowel Screening Programme. The report includes uptake, laboratory and clinical outcomes of screened individuals.

Data available broken down by: Age group; Deprivation group; NHS board area; Time trend.