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Will partial breast irradiation be a cost-effective alternative to whole breast irradiation in the treatment of early-stage breast cancer?
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA
Accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) is increasingly being used as an alternative to whole breast irradiation (WBI) after lumpectomy in patients with early-stage breast cancers. In this retrospective cost-minimization analysis, APBI with conventional three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy was found to be one third to one half as expensive as other APBI techniques (interstitial brachytherapy and intensity-modulated radiation therapy) and nearly one third less expensive as conventional WBI, assuming that all of these techniques were equally effective in preventing a recurrence of breast cancer. Had indirect treatment costs incurred by patients for travel expenses, meals away from home, and lost work days been included in the calculations, the difference in costs between APBI and WBI would have been even greater.
| Commun Oncol 2004;1:93–97 | full text |  90 kb |