Author of

• 10962

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  P1.20 - Poster Session 1 - Early Detection and Screening (ID 172)

  • Event: WCLC 2013
  • Type: Poster Session
  • Track: Imaging, Staging & Screening
  • Presentations: 1
  • Moderators:
  • Coordinates: 10/28/2013, 09:30 - 16:30, Exhibit Hall, Ground Level

  • 10970

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    P1.20-008 - Health Care costs in the Randomized Controlled Danish Lung Cancer CT Screening Trial. (ID 2741)

    09:30 - 09:30  |  Author(s): J.F. Rasmussen
    • Abstract

    Background
    Low dose computerized tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer can reduce mortality but it is currently unclear whether CT screening is cost effective. Denmark is a small country (5.3 mio. inhabitants) with a uniform and a public health care system covering all inhabitants. The unique civil registration system allows a linking of all health care expenses to the individual person. The objective of this study is to evaluate the direct healthcare costs generated by a randomized lung cancer CT screening trial in Denmark.

    Methods
    Methods: A Registry study nested in the Danish lung cancer screening trial (DLCST), involving 4104 participants, current or former heavy smokers, aged 50–70 years. Participants were randomized to five annual low dose CT scans or usual care during 2004 – 2010. Total healthcare costs and utilization data for the primary and the secondary healthcare sector, were retrieved from public registries, covering the period from randomization until September 2011

    Results
    

    Table 1. Cumulative relative health care costs in the diagnostic groups compared with the control group in the DLCST, shown as the multiplicative factor the costs on average differ from the costs in the control group.

    Annual costs were significantly higher in the screening group compared with the control group (p<0.001), but when cost of CT-scans was excluded, there was no longer a significant difference (p=0.52). Analyses according to diagnostic groups showed that annual costs were 10.57 times higher for the true-positive and 1.67 times higher for the false-positive group compared with the control group (Table 1).

    Conclusion
    Lung cancer CT screening increases overall healthcare costs compared with no screening, equivalent to the costs of the CT-screening scans. Overall healthcare costs were higher for the true-positive and false-positive groups than for the control group, even when excluding CT-screening scan costs. This increase was outweighed by the larger true-negative group who had reduced, but not statistically significant, costs compared with the control group (Table 1 and Figure 1). .Figure 1