The cost of a mammogram is about $100 and the cost of a breast biopsy is about $1000. Thus 2000 women X 10 years X $100/mammorgram + 8%X2000 women X $1000/biopsy = $2,160,000 per life saved.
This might be the calculation they actually looked at.
Good point—but they didn’t give that as their justification. Also, you can get a better cost (in dollars and other measures) per life saved by giving women mammograms once every 2 years; and probably better still by giving them every 3 years.
Of course they wouldn’t give that as a justification. Look at the reaction of the BC community over the change in recommendation with the justification of unnecessary anxiety/morbidity—do you imagine there’d be less outrage if the reported reason for changing the guideline was money? They were retarded enough to bring this up during the health-care debate as it is...
To make the cost argument, you’d need to also present the cost differences caused by earlier detection of a small number of cancers. The cost of treating a single case might be greater than the cost of testing a thousand cases.
I suspect that the only way skipping early detection can be a win, cost-wise, is if it enables more people to die before they receive costly treatment.
No you wouldn’t, the most dangerous cancers grow so fast that they often appear and grow to dangerous size between annual mammograms. Stretching it out to every 2 or 3 years might actually reduce number of lives saved even more than it reduces costs.
Note: the following is a response to a misunderstanding of MichaelBishop’s comment in its original form, and refers to the price US society is willing to pay to save a human life.
Not really—I’ve heard US$1e6 cited before as a cutoff.
I didn’t mean the value of life was low as a cutoff for making a decision. I meant the cost of the procedures sounded lower than I would have expected them to be. I will clarify the original comment.
The cost of a mammogram is about $100 and the cost of a breast biopsy is about $1000. Thus 2000 women X 10 years X $100/mammorgram + 8%X2000 women X $1000/biopsy = $2,160,000 per life saved.
This might be the calculation they actually looked at.
Good point—but they didn’t give that as their justification. Also, you can get a better cost (in dollars and other measures) per life saved by giving women mammograms once every 2 years; and probably better still by giving them every 3 years.
Of course they wouldn’t give that as a justification. Look at the reaction of the BC community over the change in recommendation with the justification of unnecessary anxiety/morbidity—do you imagine there’d be less outrage if the reported reason for changing the guideline was money? They were retarded enough to bring this up during the health-care debate as it is...
To make the cost argument, you’d need to also present the cost differences caused by earlier detection of a small number of cancers. The cost of treating a single case might be greater than the cost of testing a thousand cases.
I suspect that the only way skipping early detection can be a win, cost-wise, is if it enables more people to die before they receive costly treatment.
Early detection can also lead to overdiagnosis. The report discusses that as a factor in their decision.
No you wouldn’t, the most dangerous cancers grow so fast that they often appear and grow to dangerous size between annual mammograms. Stretching it out to every 2 or 3 years might actually reduce number of lives saved even more than it reduces costs.
Think about that, and you’ll realize that’s impossible.
and if a million dollars is the bright line, this explains why the 3x better age range of 50-60 got a pass.
Really? The cost you are quoting for the procedures sounds low for the U.S., but I’m no expert. (comment reworded for clarity)
Note: the following is a response to a misunderstanding of MichaelBishop’s comment in its original form, and refers to the price US society is willing to pay to save a human life.
Not really—I’ve heard US$1e6 cited before as a cutoff.
I didn’t mean the value of life was low as a cutoff for making a decision. I meant the cost of the procedures sounded lower than I would have expected them to be. I will clarify the original comment.
Noted (literally)!