Background
prostate cancer
SECONDARY, PROSTATE CANCER
The benefits and harms of population screening for prostate cancer continue to be debated [The cost-effectiveness of prostate cancer screening based on population-wide PSA testing is also uncertain, although it is known that costs of treating prostate cancer are high [Budget impact analysis (BIA) complements cost-effectiveness analysis by assessing the affordability of investing in a new intervention at the population level [The UK CAP trial compared a group of men aged 50–69 invited to take a single PSA screening test with a group of men offered usual care only [As far as we are aware, no study to date has looked specifically at the potential budget impact of prostate cancer screening using PSA testing in a UK context. The detailed resource-use data available at the individual patient level in CAP allow us to conduct a direct assessment of the potential impact on secondary care costs associated with introducing a population wide single PSA-based screening programme.