Plain English Summary

Accelerate, Coordinate, Evaluate (ACE) programme relates to the provision and evaluation of a range of innovative approaches in the UK to improve the ‘pathways’ along which patients are diagnosed and treated for cancer.   EEPRU’s research is an economic evaluation to estimate the short- and long-term cost and health outcomes of the ACE projects relating to lung cancer. 

The research explores the potential of CT screening approaches for the early diagnosis of lung cancer to be a cost-effective use of limited NHS resources. The analysis combines the short-term costs and confirmed diagnoses of lung cancer in two clinical projects (in Nottingham and Liverpool), with estimates of the long-term cost and health implications of the diagnoses and referrals. 

Both projects observed diagnoses of lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and smoking cessation referrals associated with respiratory health checks and subsequent CT scans. However, given the lack of ‘control’ evidence relating to people who did not have those health checks, it has not been possible to conclude that these diagnoses and referrals would have not occurred without the ACE projects being in place. Therefore, while the exploratory analyses highlight the potential for such projects to be cost-effective, it is not possible to state that these projects, or ones like them conducted at a national level, are actually a good use of NHS resources.