Table 2

Cost-effectiveness of the different strategies for CRC screening in the simulated cohort of 100 000 American subjects

 Strategy Life-years saved Cost (US$) ∆ Life-years saved ∆ Cost (US$) ICER (US$per life-year saved) No screening – 222 705 301 – – – Aspirin 6232 179 120 901 6232 −43 584 400 Dominates (saving US$436 per person)* Sigmoidoscopy 7945 281 768 855 – – – Aspirin/sigmoidoscopy 12 215 253 964 689 5983 74 843 788 12 509† Colonoscopy 13 922 310 511 159 – – – Aspirin/colonoscopy 15 108 316 932 044 2893 62 967 355 21 765‡
• Relative ICERs have been calculated only for non-dominated strategies. Costs and life-years have been discounted at 3% per year. ICERs of strategies ruled out by weak or strong dominance were not reported.

• ∆ life-years saved/costs indicate the incremental number of life-years gained/costs compared with the next-best non-dominated strategy.

• * When a strategy was more effective and less costly than the less cost-effective strategy (ie, the latter being dominated), saving per person instead of the ICER was provided.

• It represents the ICER between aspirin/sigmoidoscopy and aspirin strategies, sigmoidoscopy alone being dominated by aspirin/sigmoidoscopy.

• It represents the ICER between aspirin/colonoscopy and aspirin/sigmoidoscopy strategies, colonoscopy alone being less cost-effective (ie, weak dominance) than aspirin/colonoscopy.

• CRC, colorectal cancer; ICER, incremental cost-effectiveness ratio.