The Cost-Effectiveness of Screening Mammography in Canada

Abstract

This work includes a series of studies that examines the health and economic impacts of screening mammography from international and Canadian perspectives. This work is a compendium of several researched chapters that include an introduction, four body chapters, and a discussion. The body chapters include a systematic review of the health economic literature on screening mammography, a review of quantitative models used to examine the consequences of breast cancer screening, and cost-effectiveness analyses of screening mammography programs in Canada for the general female population and for subgroups of the population at high-risk for breast cancer. There are three analytic chapters that will be submitted as manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication. The main results of this research show that current screening mammography practices in Canada may extend life at an acceptable cost to the health care system. Due to the outlined methodological limitations of this research the results should be interpreted with caution.