title: An efficacy analysis for nasopharyngeal carcinoma screening of different screening intervals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the impact of different screening intervals on screening for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
  
  
  METHODS
  A Markov model was constructed, based on the natural history of NPC. The 5-year mortality rate of NPC was the major measurement to evaluate the efficacies of 16 screening strategies. Parameters for the model were derived from published literature.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Screening reduced the 5-year mortality rate for NPC by 20.4 - 43.3%, compared with the equivalent rate without screening. The 5 year mortality rate and the NPC pick-up rate with strategy A1 (annual screening) were 23.6% and 83.9%, respectively. Compared with strategy A1, strategy B1 (annual screening for seropositive subjects; biennial screening for seronegative subjects) had a similar 5-year mortality rate (24.0%) and a slightly smaller NPC pick-up rate (81.7%), but led to a 39.3% reduction in total screenings. Compared with all other strategies excluding strategy A1, strategy B1 achieved the lowest 5-year mortality rate and the largest NPC pick-up rate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Strategy B1 had the highest efficacy for NPC screening.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: X H
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: M Q
authors.initials: MQ
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D002277:Carcinoma; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods*; D020031:Epstein-Barr Virus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008390:Markov Chains; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D000077274:Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D036022:Capsid Proteins; C041788:Epstein-Barr viral capsid antigen; D007070:Immunoglobulin A