Treatment

A person who is diagnosed with cancer is immediately eligible for cancer treatment. Cancer treatment can have a positive effect of increased survival time. When computing survival times after the detection of cancer, the model computes a longer survival time period for people who receive treatment than for those who do not. In addition, the model supports the complete removal of cancer as an outcome of treatment. The factor by which survival time is increased and the probability of complete cancer removal can be specified by the user.

In our current work, the focus has been on understanding downstream consequences of changes in CRC screening and diagnosis. As such, we seek to simulate realistic treatment costs and survival outcomes, but we do not simulate interventions directed specifically at improving treatment or changing types of treatments. Instead, we use treatment trends, on average, for patients diagnosed with CRC.

CRC cancer survival is described on the Natural History tab.