Background Patient care experience surveys are now used internationally to assess, monitor, and improve healthcare quality. The National Cancer Patient Experience Survey (CPES) is an annual English survey that invites patients to report their experiences of National Health Service (NHS) cancer care. The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey is widely used in the USA to assess patients’ experiences of healthcare plans. Several years of collated data for each survey have recently been linked to population-based cancer registry data. We aimed to compare strengths and weaknesses of the datasets in order to consider the questions they may best answer.

Methods We obtained published information about both datasets, and compared data sources, time period, patient age, cancer types, survey method and response rate, linkage method, and question themes.

Results The English dataset of 233,445 patients was created by linking 2010–2014 national CPES with cancer registry data by matching individual identifiers, whereas the US dataset of 150,750 was created by first merging national Medicare data with regional Surveillance Epidemiology with End Results (SEER) data and then with all 1998–2010 CAHPS survey data. The major differences were that the US dataset was largely limited to patients over the age of 65 years and included a large non-cancer comparison group of 571,318 patients as well as data on health costs. Both linkages included all cancer types, with breast, prostate, colorectal, and lung cancer representing 50% of English and 61% of US patients. Both were postal surveys, with non-respondents being followed up by mail in England and by telephone in the USA. Response rates were similar in England (67%) and the USA (71%). The questions themes were similar, with CPES focussing on more cancer-specific experiences.

Conclusion The English dataset is likely to provide more detailed and representative data answering questions about cancer experiences in the English population. However, it may be possible to use both datasets to compare the experiences of older patients receiving government-funded cancer care in each country. The addition of economic data to English survey data as in the US data is an intriguing avenue for future research. A translated version of CAPHS is being used in Saudi Arabia, meaning that further data linkage and international comparisons may be possible in due course.