HMRN covers a population of 3.6 million and accrues around 2,000 new haematological cancers each year. It is based in the adjacent Cancer Networks of ‘Yorkshire’ and ‘Humber & Yorkshire Coast’.

Clinical care is provided by a single unified network which operates across 14 hospitals and is organised within 5 adult multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) and a network-wide paediatric oncology service. Network clinical teams work to common guidelines covering investigation, treatment and follow-up. All haematological malignancies within the HMRN region are treated within haematology, with MDTs including radiation oncology.

All diagnoses, including transformations and progressions, are centrally reviewed and coded to ICD-O3 by a central diagnostic laboratory - The Haematological Malignancy Diagnostic Service (www.HMDS.org.uk) - which was cited in the 2007 UK Department of Health Cancer Reform Strategy as ‘the model for delivery of complex diagnostic services’.

HMDS provides a fully integrated diagnostic pathway in a single department, bringing together the relevant technology and expertise (including histology, cytology, immunophenotyping and molecular cytogenetics) required for the diagnosis and on-going monitoring of all haematological malignancies. A sophisticated custom-designed web database is used to handle clinical diagnoses, specimen tracking and reporting.

Following diagnosis a core clinical dataset is extracted from medical records at each of the 14 HMRN hospitals. The information collected includes demographic details, prognostic factors (including imaging) and a full sequential treatment history with response and outcome recorded for all episodes. This information is actively collected by expert staff working to agreed operating procedures and data standards.

A critically important feature of the data collection process is the emphasis on primary source information. Results from radiology reports, blood tests and clinical examination are recorded enabling disease staging and prognostic scores to be accurately calculated.

All data are abstracted onto structured forms, each malignancy having its own specially tailored version. Copies of all forms can be found here.