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Pathology samples indicating new cases of cancer in Wales

Details:

Authors: Analysis Team, Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

Published on: 26th March 2026

Next update: 18th June 2026

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Introduction

This experimental analysis examines the monthly count of individual patients with a pathology sample indicating a primary malignant tumour (excluding NMSC) in Wales for the cancer sites: all cancers, prostate, breast, lung, colorectal and ovary.

Table of contents:

Main points

Examining monthly cancer pathology samples allows for more timely estimates of cancer incidence in Wales. These new, experimental statistics provide a rapid insight into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pathology-confirmed cases of new cancers, how this impact differed between the cancer types analysed, and a better understanding of post-pandemic recovery of cancer diagnoses.

Cancer registration remains the most authoritative source of data for cancer incidence. However, the time taken to process and validate data by expert cancer registration officers means there is routinely a delay of 18 months before publication. A large proportion of cancer diagnoses are registered using pathology databases, so counts of pathology samples can offer a more timely estimate of cancer incidence.

It is important to note that not all new cases of cancer are verified through pathology and relying solely on pathology information can lead to an underestimation of true cancer incidence compared to cancer registration data. Furthermore, the various methods of cancer detection can be dependent on cancer type, so pathology data may offer more comparable estimates to registration data for certain cancer types compared to other sites. Therefore, caution should be taken when interpreting pathology data.

Data tables

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Technical information

Cancer Reporting Tool – Technical GuideDownload

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