Published Apr 28, 2014

Tainan, Taiwan - Each year, about 528,000 new cases of cervical cancer are reported worldwide. In Taiwan, a screening program exists for early detection, which can save life-years for those individuals who are affected, but the effect on quality of life still remains to be quantified. In the article, “Estimation of Potential Gain in Quality of Life from Early Detection of Cervical Cancer,” published in Value in Health, investigators abstracted data of 22,543 new cases of invasive cervical cancer (ICC) from the Taiwan National Cancer Registry to estimate the lifetime survival function, as well as a consecutive, cross-sectional sample of 421 patients with ICC or carcinoma in situ (CIS) to measure the QOL. The ratio of QOL score functions for ICC and CIS patients were summed up over lifetime to obtain the duration of suffering from unsatisfactory HRQL. Jung-Der Wang MD, ScD, from the National Cheng Kung University Medical College and Hospital, lead author of the study, states, “In comparison with invasive cervical cancer, early detection of cervical neoplasm at the pre-cancer (carcinoma in situ, CIS) stage not only avoids 6.48 years of life loss, but also prevents reduction in HRQL in the long-run, leading to HRQL gains in the physical (1.71 years) and psychological (0.25 years) domains, as well as sexual life (1.47 years).”

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