Cost-effectiveness of screening for colorectal cancer with once-only flexible sigmoidoscopy and faecal occult blood test

Abstract

On the basis of a randomized controlled trial we estimate the cost per life-year gained for six different strategies for colorectal cancer screening. Individuals in the age group 50 to 64 years were randomly selected for either flexible sigmoidoscopy or a combination of flexible sigmoidoscopy and a faecal occult blood test. A comprehensive dataset was collected from the trial to estimate costs and gained life-years. There are some indications that screening for colorectal cancer can be cost-effective, but the results are not statistically significant after this short follow-up period.Keywords – screening; cost-effectiveness analysis; colorectal cancer; multinomial logit; probabilistic sensitivity analysis