HEALTH ECONOMIC EVALUATION

Economic Evaluation of Proposed Treatment of Breast Cancer

[Instructor name]

Introduction

Breast cancer is characterised by uncontrolled growth of cells in the breasts. All cancers are a result of uncontrolled growth of cells. These cancers develop when mutations occur such that the growth of individual cells is stymied while the growth of other cells becomes exponential. However, this is contrary to the natural phenomenon whereby the old cells are replaced by newer cells. Hence, these cells keep developing exponentially without any constraint to form the tumour.

The tumours also occur in breast cancer. These tumours are of two types. They are either benign tumours, which stay in the breasts without bringing any harm, or they are malignant where these tumours have the tendency to spread to other parts of the body and become harmful. These malignant tumours can then also be termed as cancerous. Thus, the breast cancer is the result of this malignant tumour.

The stages of the breast cancer, which are determined by the size and place of the malignant tumour have been defined as nine different stages. These extend from stage 0 when the cancer cells of the tumour remain confined within the lactation ducts and do not invade the surrounding breast tissue, to stage 4 where the cancer has already spread (or metastasised) to other parts of the body (Breast Cancer, 2012).

There are numerous treatments that are available to cure or contain the breast cancer, depending on the stage and grade of the cancer. These include surgery and radiotherapy, breast reconstruction, biological treatments, hormone therapy and chemotherapy (Cancer Research, 2011). However, these therapies cannot promise life to any patient and a patient with higher stage breast cancer could even die of the disease (Breast Cancer UK, 2011).

Furthermore, it has been found that breast cancer afflicts women who are aged between 50 and 54 on average. Further, every ninth woman is afflicted by breast cancer at some point in time in their life. It is also known that about 46,010 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year as per the statistics of UK of years 2004 through 2007. It is also the prevalent form of cancer (best) in young women aged below 35. Finally, an average of 12,247 women die of breast cancer each year (Breast Cancer UK, 2011). However, it is said that the mortality rate can be halved with regular breast cancer screening (Rayter and Mansi, 2003).

Economic Evaluation of the Proposed Treatment of Breast Cancer

The effectiveness and utility, or in other words the feasibility, of the proposed treatment for breast cancer, can be easily determined by conducting the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses of the case of treatment for breast cancer (Brent, 2006).

Cost-effectiveness Analysis

First we need to know as to what will be the effect of this breast cancer treatment. The outcome of the treatment is to be determined in order to conduct the economic evaluation of the treatment. The cost-effectiveness analysis considers both the consequences as well as the costs of the treatment (Brent, 2006). Therefore, in order ...