Abstract
Abstract Background: Mammographic screening carried out in Brazil's Public Health System (SUS) is opportunistic and restricted to large cities mainly in the South and Southeast regions. However, only 30% of the suspicious calcifications are confirmed to be malignancy after the biopsy. The surgical procedure to investigate is still the routine in most centers in Brazil. A vacuum assisted stereotactic biopsy (VASB) is expensive and it is not available in most centers in the developing countries. Objective: To estimate saved values in SUS by performing VASB instead of performing classic surgical procedure in the investigation of suspicious calcifications. Methods: We’ve performed a retrospective and descriptive study from July, 2012 to June, 2019, in which 1,809 patients diagnosed with suspicious calcifications on mammography (BIRADS 4 and 5) had VASB performed at Hospital Estadual Pérola Byington. The device used was Surus Pearl (Hologic, Malbolrough, Massachusetts, USA) with probe gauge 9. The biopsy`s costs were calculated and estimated in terms of American Dollars (US$) in 2019. No direct medical and nonmedical or indirect costs have been evaluated. Results: the histopathological study of the lesions revealed benign alterations in 1,179 (65.1%) The findings were positive for malignancy in 533 (29.5%) and the precursor lesions were diagnosed in 97 (5.4%) VASB is an outpatient procedure; a single biopsy has an average cost of US$ 36. Instead, the classic surgical procedure is a procedure that requires hospitalization and general anesthesia with estimated cost of US$ 97 for every single procedure. The saved values in that time by SUS were US$ 29,077. Conclusion: we found a high economic impact of VASB in the SUS scenario. Lower costs than surgical procedures and being an outpatient procedure may indirectly increase hospital beds` supply for cancer treatment. Studies focusing on other direct and indirect costs are desirable, especially in developing countries. Keywords: calcifications; vacuum-assisted stereotactic biopsy; breast cancer. Citation Format: Andressa Amorim, Marcellus N. M. Ramos, Maria Isabela B. A. C. Sawada, André Mattar, Jorge Y. Shida, Luiz H. Gebrim. Stereotactic vaccum-assisted breast biopsy: A cost effective diagnostic method for suspicious calcifications investigation in Brazil [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-03-04.
Published Version
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