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.