Purposes for processing

NHS England is running a pilot to test a case-finding approach, aimed at increasing the number of eligible people referred from primary care for investigation of pancreatic cancer.

The goal is to improve awareness and early detection of pancreatic cancer, so that more people are diagnosed at an early and treatable stage.

This initiative will see hundreds of GP practices across England proactively reviewing patient records to identify people over 60 who have the key early warning signs of pancreatic cancer including being recently diagnosed with diabetes and sudden weight loss.

GP practices taking part in the pilot will then contact patients and send them for an urgent CT scan to rule out cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is the 5th most common cause of cancer deaths in the UK. However, Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of all major cancers, with only 7% of people living 5 years or more after diagnosis.

Most people with pancreatic cancer only recognise symptoms when their disease is at a late stage, but the NHS wants to reach out to people as early as possible so they can get the best treatment.

By identifying at-risk individuals earlier, this pilot could significantly improve outcomes and save lives.

This initiative is part of a broader NHS effort to harness innovation and data to transform cancer care across the country.

Read the full announcement from NHS England: NHS England » NHS launches drive to catch one of the most lethal cancers

Sources of data and categories of personal data

In order to find out if this new service is working well, we will need to process information about you.

Most of this information will be collected by your GP practice as part of your usual care or identify if you require additional tests in line with current NICE guidance.

GP practices will pseudonymise (de-identify) your information before they submit the information to NHS England to support the evaluation.

Please see the  Cancer Pilots Evaluation privacy notice for more information about how we use your information.

How long will NHS England retain my personal data and identifiable responses?

NHS England will use your personal data solely for evaluation purposes and to produce findings and insights for NHS England in relation to this new service.

How long will NHS England retain my personal data and identifiable responses?

NHS England will only retain your personal data in a way that can identify you for as long as is necessary to complete the evaluation.

In practice, this means that once we have satisfactorily reported the anonymous research findings to NHS England, we will securely remove your personal, identifying data from our systems.

Legal basis for processing

For GDPR purposes NHS England’s lawful basis for processing is Article 6(1)(c) – ‘…legal obligation…’;

For the processing of special categories (health) data the basis is 9(2)(h) – ‘…health or social care…’

Other information

Your GP practice must also separately share limited information with other NHS bodies regarding the services they deliver, including with NHS England who have commissioned the referral service.

Please also see your GP practice’s privacy notice to understand how they will use your information.

More information about how your data will be used by NHS England to evaluate its Cancer Referral Services is in their general privacy notice and its Cancer Pilots Evaluation privacy notice.