Do treatment costs vary by stage of detection of breast cancer?

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a study wherein full treatment data were collected from the medical records of 301 women treated for breast cancer at a major public hospital. The objective of the study was to ascertain whether, and to what extent, treatment costs for breast cancer vary by stage of detection of the disease. This issue is of importance in the economic evaluation of breast cancer screening programs, as any treatment cost savings arising from early detection of the disease should be offset against the costs of the screening program. The results indicate that there is a statistically significant relationship between stage of detection and treatment costs for breast cancer, with mean treatment costs being higher the more advanced is the disease on presentation. This relationship was found to be robust even aftertaking into account the age of patients, their discharge status (alive or deceased at last separation) and their year of first admission. The results also indicate that there is a substantial amount of variation in treatment costs within each stage of detection. Nevertheless, the between-stage variation in treatment costs is substantial and highly statistically significant, lending support to the contention that detecting this disease at an earlier stage may indeed significantly reduce treatment costs.