"According to the American Cancer Society, almost 200,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. Given this high prevalence, resource-conscious healthcare systems may want to consider cost-effectiveness when deciding on appropriate adjuvant therapies for patients with early-stage breast cancer," Rinaa Punglia, M.D., M.P.H., senior author of the study and a radiation oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital, said.

EB-PBI was significantly more cost-effective than WBRT, although WBRT was clearly found to be more cost-effective than brachy-PBI. In fact, WBRT was associated with a cost-effectiveness ratio of $630,000 per quality-adjusted life year in comparison to EB-PBI. A ratio of $50,000 per quality-adjusted life year is considered to be cost-effective.

"In a cost-conscious environment, our results suggest that EB-PBI should be given preference over WBRT for the appropriate patients, and unless the costs associated with brachytherapy are significantly decreased, it cannot be considered a cost-effective treatment." David Sher, M.D., M.P.H., lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said. "Partial breast irradiation, however, is still not considered the standard of care for treating breast cancer. I encourage women interested in this treatment to talk to their radiation oncologists about the benefits and risks of these treatments and consider enrolling in a clinical trial."

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