Cancer: breast cancer mortality rate

  • NICE indicator
  • IND4
  • Published:
  • Last updated:
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Indicator

Breast cancer mortality rates (female).

Indicator type

Network / system level indicator. The indicator would be appropriate to understand and report on the performance of networks or systems of providers.

This document does not represent formal NICE guidance. For a full list of NICE indicators, see our menu of indicators.

To find out how to use indicators and how we develop them, see our NICE indicator process guide.

Rationale

Improvements in early detection and availability of effective treatments can be reflected in lower mortality rates.

Specification

Numerator: The number of deaths from breast cancer registered in the relevant year, in females of all ages, aggregated into quinary age bands (0 to 4 to 90 and over).

Denominator: Total female population (aggregated into quinary age bands, from 0 to 4 to 90 and over).

Calculation: Directly standardised rate, per 100,000 population. Details are available in the definitions section of OHID's published indicator ID 93960: Fingertips Cancer Services profile indicator: Mortality rate from breast cancer, all ages (female).

Definitions: Number of deaths as a result of breast cancer, classified by underlying cause of death recorded as ICD-10 code C50 (malignant neoplasm of breast).

Exclusions:

  • Where the observed number of deaths is fewer than 10, the rate has been supressed as there are too few deaths to calculate directly standardised rates reliably.

  • Carcinoma in situ of breast (D05).

Data source: As described in the definitions section of OHID's published indicator ID 93960: Fingertips Cancer Services profile indicator: Mortality rate from breast cancer, all ages (female).

Expected population size:

The Office of National Statistics (ONS, 2024) estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, mid-2022 edition (MYE1: summary for the UK, England, females and all persons) show that 51% of people in England are female. Using 51% for the calculation, the same ONS data shows: 5,100 per 10,000 patients served by a network. There is no minimum number of patients required for network level indicators. However, consideration should be given to whether the majority of results would require suppression because of small numbers.