The Cancer Outcome and Services Data set (COSD) has been the national standard for reporting cancer in the NHS in England since January 2013.
In January 2013 the COSD replaced the previous National Cancer Dataset as the new national standard for reporting cancer in the NHS in England. It incorporated a revised generic Cancer Registration Dataset (CRDS) and additional clinical and pathology site specific data items relevant to different tumour types.
The COSD specifies the items to be submitted electronically by service providers to the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS) on a monthly basis. It replaces the existing monthly NCRAS
upload and may include separate files from different hospital systems.
The COSD also identifies the items that the NCRAS will obtain from other sources such as Cancer Waiting Times, Cancer Screening Programmes and ONS. (Some items from these other datasets
will be included in COSD provider submissions for patient identification and record matching.)
Data is submitted by NHS Providers of Cancer Services and will linked with data from other sources by the NCRAS at patient level using NHS number in order to compile the full dataset.