Dr Katie Spencer

Profile

I am an Honorary Consultant Clinical Oncologist and Associate Professor based in the Academic Unit of Health Economics. I originally trained at the University of Cambridge before moving up to Yorkshire as a junior doctor. I was awarded the Rowan Williams medal for highest mark in the final Clinical Oncology exam for Fellowship of the Royal College of Radiologists before undertaking a Medical Research Council funded Doctoral Training Fellowship.

My PhD investigated how treatment and early mortality outcomes of palliative radiotherapy for bone metastases vary across the NHS. It went on to consider patient priorities in undergoing treatment and how cost-effective both current and potential future radiotherapy strategies are, recognising that this varies as people near the end of life. I now sit in the Academic Unit of Health Economics where my work continues to bring together routine healthcare data with health economic methodologies to consider the equity, outcomes and cost-effectiveness of cancer care.

My clinical practice includes the delivery of radiotherapy and chemotherapy for patients with lymphoma and other haematological malignancies. I lead the Yorkshire and Humber supra-regional skin lymphoma multi-disciplinary team. In addition, I am NHS England’s National Clinical Lead for Radiotherapy Data. In this role I use my clinical experience and academic knowledge, collaborating with colleagues across the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS), the wider NHS and external stakeholders, to provide information to clinicians, providers and commissioners that can inform and improve the delivery of radiotherapy across the NHS.

Research interests

In line with my work in the NDRS, I have contributed to multiple studies using routine cancer data to consider the utilisation and outcomes of cancer treatment across the NHS. I have worked to understand how variation in utilisation of curative treatment for lung cancer influences mortality at a population level, how the use of radiotherapy for rectal cancer differs across the country and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic the delivery of NHS radiotherapy.

Beyond this, I’ve contributed to a large collaborative study assessing the costs of radiotherapy delivery across the NHS. This project was undertaken in collaboration with the Royal College of Radiologists and ESTRO-HERO project and is published as a report by the Radiotherapy Board (RCR-HERO report). Following on from this I’m working with international colleagues through the International Atomic Energy Agency to develop a radiotherapy dataset for use internationally and have contributed to the recent Radiotherapy UK “World-class Radiotherapy in the UK” report for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Radiotherapy.

My current research brings together my expertise in routine cancer data analysis and health economics to focus on the costs of cancer care in the UK. Working with a team including colleagues from across the country I am leading a Cancer Research UK-funded project to systematically identify what is currently known about the costs of cancer; to the NHS, to patients, to their carers and society more widely. Following this, I will be investigating how spending in cancer care differs across the NHS, whether this variation reflects patient need or other factors (including those relating to geography and the health service), before considering how this impacts outcomes and particularly the deprivation gap in cancer survival. Working with stakeholders from across the healthcare system I will build a shared understanding of how we can improve cancer care to reduce the deprivation gap and use the outlined quantitative analyses to guide future cancer policy. 

Recognising that sometimes quantitative analyses alone are not sufficient to drive policy change, I work collaboratively and contribute to qualitative studies that seek to gain a greater understanding of the experiences of patients and clinicians in healthcare. This includes projects underway with the Centre for Dementia Research, Leeds Beckett University (Dementia and comorbidity). 

Qualifications

• MB BChir
• MA (Cantab)
• MRCP
• FRCR
• PhD

Professional memberships

• FRCR

Student education

I’m a PhD supervisor to Janet Tonge and previous MRes supervisor to Sairah Naseer. I work with and mentor junior clinical academics and am always happy to be contacted to discuss research opportunities. I lecture for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including the Yorkshire and Humber courses for Fellowship of the Royal College of Radiologists, and Clinical Oncology exams.

Research groups and institutes

• Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's
• Academic Unit of Health Economics
• Health economics
• Cancer Epidemiology Group
• Decision Modelling Group
• Leeds Institute of Health Sciences