Assessment of Tools to Diagnose Cancer in Patients with Early Stage Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review

Mohsen  Pakdaman; Hamidreza   Dehghan; Habibeh  Ziadpoor; Firoozeh   Abolhasanizade; Seyedeh Mahdieh  Namayandeh

doi:10.18502/jebhpme.v6i1.9028

Mohsen Pakdaman Health Policy and Management Research Center, Department of Health service Management, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
Hamidreza Dehghan Research Center of Prevention and Epidemiology of Non Communicable Disease, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
Habibeh Ziadpoor Research Center of Prevention and Epidemiology of Non Communicable Disease, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
Firoozeh Abolhasanizade Department of Surgery, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Seyedeh Mahdieh Namayandeh Research Center of Prevention and Epidemiology of Non Communicable Disease, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/jebhpme.v6i1.9028

Keywords: BRCA1/2 gene, Breast cancer, Breast cancer diagnosis, Gene expression indexing technology, Cost-effectiveness

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is an uncontrolled and unnatural proliferation of cells in different breast tissues. The first measure to diagnose breast cancer is an examination by a surgeon followed by mammography, sonography, sampling, and other diagnosing methods. Given that there are several methods to diagnose breast cancer, and most of them are quite expensive, the present systematic review compares the expenses and effectiveness of different methods to diagnose breast cancer.

Methods: The study was carried out as a systematic review through searching databases, i.e., PubMed, Web of Science, Magiran, Scopus, and Embase for articles published from March 1999 to May 31, 2017. The research articles regarding health technology assessment and economic assessment (n = 8) were examined.

Results: Generally, conducting MRI screening and digital mammography every six months after the age of 30 are proved to be the most efficient and economical methods to screen carriers of BRCA (BReast CAncer) mutated genes. Besides, implementing both the techniques simultaneously was more cost-efficient with BRCA1 compared to BRCA2. Some studies have revealed that genetic tests and Oncotype tests, in particular, were the most cost-efficient methods to diagnose the disease, especially in its early stages.

Conclusion: Consequently, indexing gene expression in individuals with BRCA gene mutation is revealed to more cost-efficient.