Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Optimization Of Breast Cancer Screening Modalities, Yu Shen, Giovanni Parmigiani

Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Biostatistics Working Papers

Mathematical models and decision analyses based on microsimulations have been shown to be useful in evaluating relative merits of various screening strategies in terms of cost and mortality reduction. Most investigations regarding the balance between mortality reduction and costs have focused on a single modality, mammography. A systematic evaluation of the relative expenses and projected benefit of combining clinical breast examination and mammography is not at present available. The purpose of this report is to provide methodologic details including assumptions and data used in the process of modeling for complex decision analyses, when searching for optimal breast cancer screening strategies …