Background: Recently, massive increases in health-care costs for the diagnosis and management of skin lesions have been observed (2000-05). The aim of this study was to describe the health system costs attributed to the diagnosis and management of suspicious skin lesions detected during a trial of a population melanoma screening programme (1998-2001).
Setting: Queensland, Australia.
Methods: Data from the trial and Medicare Australia were used to categorize and cost all suspicious skin lesions arising from the trial, which included general practitioner consultations, diagnosis/management and pathology. Comparisons were made with other screened and unscreened populations.
Results: Overall, 2982 lesions were treated within the trial producing a mean cost of Aus$118 per lesion. Excisions for benign lesions contributed the greatest proportion of total costs (45%). The total cost burden was approximately 10% higher for men than women, and 63% of overall costs were for persons aged >or=50 years. For diagnosis and management procedures, the estimated average cost per 1000 individuals was Aus$23,560 for men aged >or=50 years from the skin cancer screening trial, compared with Aus$26,967 for BreastScreen Australia and Aus$3042 for the National Cervical Screening Program.
Conclusions: The proportion of costs for benign skin lesions and biopsies arising from the screening programme were no higher than in the two-year period outside the trial. While comparisons are difficult, it appears that diagnostic and management costs for skin cancer as a result of screening may be comparable with those for BreastScreen Australia, if screening is targeted at men aged >or=50 years.