Cancer Australia explains why it wants a national lung cancer screening program
It comes just five years after the agency said it was not cost-effective
The justifications for screening programs are always vexed – a complicated mix of calculations weighing harms of overdiagnosis against the benefits of early detection and then placing a dollar value on the result.
Cancer Australia is formally advising the Federal Government to create a national lung cancer screening program, saying it would save 12,000 lives over the next decade.
But the cost would be in the realm of $83,000 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY).
This figure seems high given that, in general, interventions are usually deemed cost-effective only if they sit below the $50,000 per quality-adjusted life-year threshold (for a quick overview of QALYs and their meaning, click here).
