EU-TOPIA publication on cost-effectiveness of HPV screening in Eastern Europe

A paper has recently been published in Gynecologic Oncology on the cost-effectiveness of primary HPV-screening in Eastern Europe. In this study, the EU-TOPIA cervix model of Slovenia was applied by simulating 968 different screening strategies for the current unvaccinated population. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated for cost-efficient strategies in the subset of strategies that would be acceptable to Slovenian women as well as for all simulated strategies. Also, to translate the findings to situations in other European countries, sensitivity analyses have been performed in which screening behavior, test characteristics, costs of the HPV-test and disutility assumptions were varied.

The conclusion of the paper is: ‘Despite differences in cervical cancer epidemiology between Eastern and Western European regions where HPV screening was evaluated, the optimal screening protocol was found to be very similar. Furthermore, strategies that were considered socially acceptable to the population were found to be almost as cost-effective as less acceptable strategies and can therefore be considered a viable alternative to prevent opportunistic screening.

For more information, please see the original paper.