Economic evaluations of colorectal cancer screening: A systematic review and quality assessment

Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is the third most common type of cancer worldwide and ranks second in mortality. Screening programs for early detection and treatment have been implemented in several countries. Economic evaluations are an important tool to support decision-making about reimbursement and coverage decisions in health systems and, therefore, to support efficient resource allocation. The article aims to review the up-to-date evidence on economic evaluations of CRC screening strategies. MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, SCOPUS, SciELO, Lilacs, CRD databases, and lists of references were reviewed to identify relevant literature regarding full economic evaluations of CRC screening in asymptomatic average-risk individuals over 40 years old. Searches were conducted with no restriction to language, setting, or date. Qualitative syntheses described CRC screening strategies and comparators (baseline context), study designs, key parameter inputs and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios. Seventy-nine articles were included. Most of the studies were from high-income countries and a third-party payer perspective. Markov models were predominantly used, although microsimulation has been increasingly adopted in the last 15 years. The authors found 88 different screening strategies for CRC, which differed in the type of technique, the interval of screening, and the strategy, i.e., isolated or combined. The annual fecal immunochemical test was the most predominant screening strategy. All studies reported cost-effective results in their scenarios compared to no screening scenarios. One-quarter of the publications reported cost-saving results. It is still necessary to develop future economic evaluations in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), which account for the high burden of disease.