Women harmed, money wasted: Why breast screening needs a rethink

ANALYSIS: Can we afford to screen as many women as we do, considering the cost and rate of overdiagnosis?
Jocelyn Wright
Professor Alexandra Barratt
Professor Alexandra Barratt.

If Australia’s breast cancer screening program was proposed today as a necessary intervention to protect women from the physical and emotional ravages of a disease that kills 3000 a year, would it be dismissed for the harms it causes and the costs it imposes?

Put another way is it still worthwhile, fit-for-purpose?

Last month, researchers from Cancer Council NSW published the results of some rough calculations attempting to identify the current price of each single extra life-year generated. 

Their estimate was around $65,000. In terms of cost-benefit calculations in healthcare this is very high, higher than the $30,000-$50,000 threshold Australian governments apply when deciding whether interventions are worthwhile.