Breast cancer screening. A study in cost-effectiveness analysis

This paper identifies the long run average British National Health Service screening costs in one particular screening clinic for various different regimes: mammography, thermography and clinical examination; thermography and clinical examination; and mammography and clinical examination; each of these having one or two clinical examinations and the option of single or double reporting of mammograms and thermograms. It then compares the cost-effectiveness of these different regimes where 'costs' are defined widely to include not only screening costs but also biopsy costs, anxiety costs for women biopsied, costs of false negatives, etc. By defining costs in this way, it was possible (if somewhat tentatively because of the small numbers involved) to identify mammography with single reporting together with a single clinical examination as 'the best buy'.