Study estimates $4B annual overspending in U.S. on breast cancer

A new report released this week estimates that the U.S. spends $4 billion a year on unnecessary medical costs due to mammograms that generate false alarms, and on treatment of certain breast tumors unlikely to cause problems (Source: “Study: Breast cancer overtreatment costs US $4B a year,” Associated Press, via Willoughby News-Herald, April 6, 2015).

The study, published Monday in the journal Health Affairs, found that for women ages 40 to 59, $2.8 billion is spent on false-positive mammograms and another $1.2 billion is attributed to breast cancer overdiagnosis. That's the treatment of tumors that grow slowly or not at all, and are unlikely to develop into life-threatening disease during a woman's lifetime.

Study authors Mei-Sing Ong, a research fellow at Boston Children's Hospital, and Kenneth Mandl, a professor at Harvard Medical School, say their findings indicate that the cost of breast cancer overtreatment appears to be much higher than previously estimated. Their $4 billion figure is the midpoint of a range that depends upon assumptions about the rates of false-positive mammograms and breast cancer overdiagnosis.