Characterising the volume and variation of multiple urgent suspected cancer referrals in England, April 2013-March 2018: a national cohort study.

Objectives: To establish a methodology to categorise urgent suspected cancer (USC) referrals in England and use these categories to understand individual patient referral patterns by demographic characteristics, financial year and referral pathway.

Design: Cross-sectional population-based cohort study.

Setting: From Cancer Waiting Times data, linked to demographic information held by the National Disease Registration Service, referral-level data on all USC referrals in England between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2018.

Estimating surgery, radiotherapy and systemic anti-cancer therapy treatment costs for cancer patients by stage at diagnosis.

Background: The increasing burden of cancer has economic implications for the healthcare system in England. However, there is limited evidence on the cost of cancer treatment. We calculated the costs of initial cancer treatment (resection, radiotherapy, systemic anti-cancer therapy [SACT]) based on stage at diagnosis.