Screening strategies for colorectal cancer among patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and family history

Patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and family history of colorectal cancer (CRC) are at higher risks but how they should be screened remains uncertain. Hence, we evaluated the cost‐effectiveness of CRC screening among patients with NAFLD and family history by different strategies. A hypothetical population of 100,000 subjects aged 40–75 years receive: (i) yearly fecal immunochemical test (FIT) at 50 years; (ii) flexible sigmoidoscopy (FS) every 5 years at 50 years; (iii) colonoscopy 10 yearly at 50 years; (iv) colonoscopy 10 yearly at 50 years among those with family history/NAFLD and yearly FIT at 50 years among those without; (v) colonoscopy 10 yearly at 40 years among those with family history/NAFLD and yearly FIT at 50 years among those without and (vi) colonoscopy 10 yearly at 40 years among those with family history/NAFLD and colonoscopy 10 yearly at 50 years among those without. The incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio (ICER) was studied by Markov modeling. It was found that colonoscopy, FS and FIT reduced incidence of CRC by 49.5, 26.3 and 23.6%, respectively. Using strategies 4, 5 and 6, the corresponding reduction in CRC incidence was 29.9, 30.9 and 69.3% for family history, and 33.2, 34.7 and 69.8% for NAFLD. Compared with no screening, strategies 4 (US$1,018/life‐year saved) and 5 (US$7,485) for family history offered the lowest ICER, whilst strategy 4 (US$5,877) for NAFLD was the most cost‐effective. These findings were robust when assessed with a wide range of deterministic sensitivity analyses around the base case. These indicated that screening patients with family history or NAFLD by colonoscopy at 50 years was economically favorable. What's new? Non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC), potentially warranting earlier colorectal screening for NAFLD patients. It remains unclear, however, which of the existing CRC screening options would most benefit this population. In the present evaluation of the cost‐effectiveness of different CRC screening strategies, colonoscopy performed once every 10 years starting at age 50 was determined to be economically superior for patients with NAFLD and for persons with a family history of CRC. Annual fecal immunochemical testing was the most cost‐effective approach for individuals without a family history of CRC.