Table_1_Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Ultrasound Screening for Thyroid Cancer in Asymptomatic Adults.DOCX

Objectives: This study evaluated the long-term cost-effectiveness of ultrasound screening for thyroid cancer compared with non-screening in asymptomatic adults.Methods: Applying a Markov decision-tree model with effectiveness and cost data from literature, we compared the long-term cost-effectiveness of the two strategies: ultrasound screening and non-screening for thyroid cancer. 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 18.74 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/QALY greatly 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 for thyroid cancer has no obvious advantage in terms of cost-effectiveness compared with non-screening. The optimized thyroid screening strategy for a specific population is essential.

研究目标：本研究评估了超声筛查甲状腺癌与无症状成人非筛查的长期成本效益。研究方法：通过应用基于文献中有效性和成本数据的马尔可夫决策树模型，我们比较了两种策略：超声筛查甲状腺癌与非筛查的长期成本效益。进行了单向敏感性分析和概率敏感性分析，以验证模型结果稳定性。研究结果：超声筛查甲状腺癌的累积成本为18,819.24美元，质量调整生命年（QALYs）为18.74年，而非筛查的累积成本为15,864.28美元，QALYs为18.71年。增量成本效益比106,947.50美元/QALY远超过50,000美元的阈值。单向敏感性分析的结果表明，良性结节的效用值和甲状腺癌手术后的健康效用值将影响结果。研究结论：与非筛查相比，超声筛查在成本效益方面没有明显的优势。针对特定人群的优化甲状腺筛查策略至关重要。