Cancer Survival in England, cancers diagnosed 2016 to 2020, followed up to 2021

This bulletin provides data for adults diagnosed with cancer between 2016 and 2020 and followed up to 2021, and children diagnosed with cancer between 2002 and 2020 and followed up to 2021. For adults, breakdowns (gender and deprivation) are available for 1-year to 5-year net cancer survival in adults for 31 common cancers. For 23 of these cancers, 1-year to 5-year net cancer survival estimates by stage at diagnosis are also presented. Cancer survival by local geographies are also included, with breakdowns by CA, ICBs and NHS Regions for 22 cancer sites and trend estimates for 1-year and 5-year net survival for adults between 2007 to 2011 and 2016 to 2020. 

Survival estimates are presented for males, females and persons. We present survival for cancer of the testis, prostate and larynx only in males and for cervix, ovary, uterus, vulva in females. We report survival by age group and for all ages combined. To allow comparisons, estimates are age-standardised using the International Cancer Survival Standard (ICSS). Confidence intervals are provided in datasets to indicate the precision of survival estimates. 

Survival estimates are only presented if sufficient data were available to make reliable estimates of survival. Further information on the methods can be found in the Cancer survival Quality and Methodology Information report. 

The healthcare geography of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) has been introduced since the previous publication of this series. ICBs replace Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships, many sharing the same geographical definitions as their predecessor organisations but not all. This results in an inability to estimate trends in cancer survival for these modified geographical footprints. 

The proportion of cervix, stomach and thyroid cancers that were staged fell beneath the quality thresholds so survival by stage at diagnosis is not reported for these cancers in this publication.