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Cancer Resources > Cancer News > Cancer News from Reuters > Reuters Cancer News > 2006 > December
Touch imprint cytology more effective, less costly for lymph node assessment
Last Updated: 2006-12-13 15:37:44 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Not only does touch imprint cytology (TIC) have the advantage of providing immediate results for sentinel lymph node assessment during breast cancer surgery, it is less costly than standard lymph node assessment, which takes 5 to 7 days for results.
An economic assessment of TIC and standard postoperative lymph node (SLN) assessment, performed by Dr. Jacqueline S. Jeruss and colleagues at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, is published in the November 15th issue of Cancer.
A decision analysis model was created to assess the cost effectiveness of the two techniques. The model incorporated sensitivity and specificity assessments of both techniques, short-term health status associated with surgical staging, patient preference and estimated quality-adjusted life years. Results were collected prospectively from 342 breast cancer patients.
"For patients with larger tumors, (TIC) is not only more effective, but also less costly than standard SLN assessment alone," Dr. Jeruss reports.
"For each tumor stage, TIC was cost-effective, and for patients with larger tumors (T3 and T4), TIC was the dominant strategy," the investigators write. "The analysis was robust to changes in sensitivity and specificity of TIC, prevalence of metastasis, probability of complications, and cost."
Of importance was the finding that patients preferred TIC because of the decreased anxiety associated with the immediate results, the researchers add.
Cancer 2006;107:2328-2336.
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