Abstract:
Objective To analyze the effectiveness and cost of low-dose spiral computed tomography (LDCT) voluntary lung cancer screening (LCS) among residents in Lixia district of Ji′nan city, Shandong province and to provide evidences for developing lung cancer prevention-related strategies and policies by government departments.
Methods Information on LCS were collected from 5 937 residents aged 40 – 60 years in Lixia district, who voluntarily had chest LDCT for LCS at Eighth People′s Hospital of Ji′nan city from September 2015 to March 2017. The effectiveness of the voluntary LCS was evaluated with detection rate, early diagnosis rate, screening cost, cost effectiveness ratio (CER), early detection cost index (EDCI) and other indicators.
Results Of all the voluntary examinees, 89 were with positive or suspected positive lesion images and 20 were pathologically diagnosed as lung cancer (12 early and 8 advanced lung cancer cases), with a detection rate of 336.9/100 000 and an early diagnosis rate of 60% for lung cancer. The total cost of the LCS was 1 827 233 yuan (RMB) and the average cost of per examinee was 307.77 yuan; the cost effectiveness ratio was 91 361.65 yuan and the early detection cost index was 2.24.
Conclusion Low-dose spiral computed tomography can be adopted in lung cancer screening to detect more early cancer cases. The cost effectiveness of the voluntary lung cancer screening is good but it is could be better if the screening being carried out in high-risk populations.