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"We found that it costs approximately three times as much to add MRI to the screening process for every estimated one year of life saved," said Dr Sepideh Saadatmand, who is a physician and PhD student at the Erasmus University Medical Center (Rotterdam, The Netherlands). "When women were screened using clinical breast examinations, mammography and MRI, the cost per detected cancer was about €103,000. We predicted that screening women between the ages of 35-60 in this way would reduce deaths from breast cancer by 24%, at a cost per year of life gained of €30,000.
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"It is clear from the results of this study that adding MRI to screening programmes for all women with a cumulative life time risk of 15-50% for breast cancer is highly effective, but possibly too expensive. However, it may be cost-effective for a select sub-group."
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Distasteful as some of that comes across, at least the bean counting is more in your face. Often, there is the mention of the terrible burden of false positives without mentioning false negatives of mammo.
But you know..hopefully those that might benefit are informed ..whether insurance covers it or not. Let the patient help decide what their life is worth.