Toumazis I, de Nijs K, Cao P, et al. - The 2021 US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation on lung cancer screening, involved reduction in the starting age for screening from 55 to 50 years and the minimum cumulative smoking exposure from 30 to 20 pack-years when compared with its 2013 recommendation. Researchers herein evaluated the cost-effectiveness of the 2021 USPSTF recommendation for lung cancer screening compared with the 2013 recommendation. In addition, they examined the cost-effectiveness of 6 alternative screening strategies that maintained a minimum cumulative smoking exposure of 20 pack-years and an ending age for screening of 80 years but varied the initiating ages for screening (50 or 55 years) and the number of years since smoking cessation (≤ 15, ≤ 20, or ≤ 25).

• Despite the expansion of screening eligibility to include younger smokers and those who had at least 20 pack-years of smoking exposure, the 2021 recommendation was identified as cost-effective when compared with the 2013 USPSTF recommendation.

• As per estimates, there appeared greater cost-effectiveness in correlation with alternative screening strategies that maintained a minimum cumulative smoking exposure of 20 pack-years but expanded screening eligibility to former smokers who had not smoked for more than 15 years when compared with the 2021 USPSTF recommendation.