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Preventive cancer screening has added millions of years to Americans’ lives and saved the US economy trillions of dollars, according to a recent study published in the journal BMC Health Services Research.
Public health actions, including reducing smoking, better treatments and screening, have resulted in a 32% reduction in cancer deaths in the United States over the past three decades. The Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) currently recommends single-site cancer screening for colon, lung, breast and cervical cancer for at-risk individuals. However, many types of cancer remain undetected and have bad consequences.
“Screening for breast, colon, cervical and lung cancer have saved millions of years of life, but their full impact has yet to be reached,” said A. Mark Fendrick, MD, a senior author of the study, in a press release. 2 “A significant number of Americans who could benefit from screening for these four cancers are not screened, even though the screening tests must be made available free of charge to almost all health plan holders.”
University of Michigan researchers conducted a study to assess the benefits of key cancer screening technologies in terms of years of life gained and associated benefits. The study used a mathematical model to determine the clinical and economic value of recommended breast, colorectal, cervical and lung cancer screening from 1996 to 2020.
The model used US Census data to calculate the total number of eligible individuals in the first year of each USPSTF recommendation, as well as those who became eligible in subsequent years. The economic potential for screening was calculated by applying the value of a life year to the estimated total life years potentially gained.
The researchers found that the estimated life years gained through screening ranged from 15.5 to 21.3 million – assuming the screening recommendations were followed perfectly. At currently reported compliance rates, preventive screening has saved 12.2 to 16.2 million years of life since the USPSTF introduced the recommendations.
Additionally, the researchers found that the benefits resulted in a value of $8.2 trillion to $11.3 trillion at full potential and $6.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion at current compliance rates. This means that if adhered to perfectly, it could have saved an additional 3.2 to 5.1 million years of life and $1.7 to 2.7 trillion.
The researchers said the study’s findings underscore the importance of efforts to encourage more people to have the recommended cancer screenings, as well as the need to develop new methods of early detection of other cancers.
“This analysis demonstrates the tremendous economic value derived from oncology diagnostics to date,” said Tomas Philipson, PhD, lead author of the study, in a press release. “With recent innovations in artificial intelligence-based blood screening for cancer, we are poised to make even greater advances in the future.”
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