title: [The economic evaluation of the early diagnosis of breast carcinoma: a review of the literature].
abstract: This paper reviews the economic aspects of screening for breast cancer: from a bibliographic search we identified studies on complete economic evaluation of screening programs in different parts of the world. At the methodological level, it goes as far as proposing a reference model for economic evaluation. An examination of the results obtained from various studies indicates that the introduction of screening program involves a cost per life-year saved of between 3,800 and 88,000 dollars. Allowing for quality of life, the range is 4,050 to 91,650 dollars. A discussion of some examples of sensitivity analysis shows how, and how much, the results change as a consequence of different assumptions regarding crucial variables: discount rate, reference period of the analysis, frequency of screening, age of the target population, volume of activity of each screening unit, compliance, sensitivity and specificity of the test.
authors.affiliation: Cresa (Centro di ricerca per l'economia, l'organizzazione e l'amministrazione della sanità), Torino.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vanara
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000191:economics* / Q000517:prevention & control; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000191:economics* / Q000517:prevention & control; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D017146:Models, Organizational; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013997:Time Factors
vernacular_title: La valutazione economica della diagnosi precoce del carcinoma mammario: una rassegna della letteratura.