AUTHOR=Yang Nan , Yang Han , Guo Jeff Jianfei , Hu Ming , Li Sheyu 

TITLE=Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Ultrasound Screening for Thyroid Cancer in Asymptomatic Adults

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.729684

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2021.729684

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Objectives: This study was aimed to evaluate the long-term cost-effectiveness of ultrasound screening compared with non-screening in asymptomatic population to provides informative input for health care decision makers to develop relevant guidelines for thyroid cancer management strategy.
Methods: Applying a Markov decision-tree model, we compared the long-term cost effectiveness of the two strategies: screening and non-screening. Efficacy and cost data in this study were derived from the literature. A one-way sensitivity analysis and a probabilistic sensitivity analysis were performed to verify the stability of model results.
Results: The cumulative cost of screening for thyroid cancer was $18,819.24, with 18.73508 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), whereas the cumulative cost of non-screening was $15,864.28, with 18.71 QALYs. The Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio of $106,947.50/QALYgreatly exceeded the threshold of $50,000. The result of the one-way sensitivity analysis showed that the utility values of benign nodules and utility of health after thyroid cancer surgery would affect the results.
Conclusions: Ultrasound screening of thyroid cancer has no obvious advantage in terms of cost-effectiveness compared with non-screening, which does not mean that thyroid cancer screening is completely useless. The optimized thyroid screening guideline for a specific population or subgroups should be released.