Abstract
Objective: In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of colorectal cancer screening, we divided colorectal cancer patients into groups by means of discovery and carried out a comparison of disease progression status and medical costs.
Methods: Our subjects were 133 patients of less than 80 years in age diagnosed with colorectal cancer from April 2010 - March 2011, Disease progression status was obtained from hospital cancer records. Medical costs were determined for a period of one year from the date of diagnosis from medical treatment fees data. Analyses were also carried out by cancer stage and treatment method.
Results: Patients were divided into a screening group, with 48 subjects, and a hospital group (patients who were examined in hospital after symptoms were observed), with 85 subjects. For cancer stage 0, there were 28 subjects in the screening group (58.3%) and 28 subjects in the hospital group (32.9%). For early cancer at Stage 0 and Stage I, there were 38 subjects (79.2%) in the screening group and 37 subjects in the hospital group (43.5%). Endoscopic treatment on an outpatient basis was conducted in 25 subjects in the screening group (52.1%) and 14 subjects in the hospital group (16.5%). Treatment by endoscopic surgery or surgical operations had been completed in 38 subjects in the screening group (79.2%) and 45 subjects in the hospital group (52.9%). The median annual medical costs per person for the screening group was ￥229,495 (mean ￥741,504±￥752,431) and that for the hospital group was ￥1,753,790 (mean ￥1,927,710±￥1,698,447) for the hospital group.
Conclusion: Colorectal cancer screening would not only enable cancer to be discovered at an early stage, it would also help to keep medical costs down.
