The national NHS contract mandates NHS providers to collect the cancer registration dataset and provide it to their local cancer registry. 

The eight UK cancer registries process this data and provide information to the Office of National Statistics. This national register is vital to understanding the trends in cancer incidence, prevalence and survival over time. This register also helps to understand trends within different geographical areas of the UK and in different social groups within the population.

Our local cancer registry is the West Midlands Cancer Intelligence Unit [WMCIU].

An area of growing interest and considerable importance is the stage of each cancer at the time of presentation. There is a national drive to improve the recording and reporting of cancer stage as highlighted by ‘Improving Outcomes: A Strategy for Cancer’. Progress with the supply of staging data by providers is monitored by the WMCIU and is available here (restricted access).