Introduction.

Breast reconstruction, either immediate or delayed, is part of the treatment of breast cancer. Each country and health system pays for and evaluates these procedures in different ways. Thus, it is important to determine which strategy is most cost-effective in Colombia.

Objective:

To evaluate the cost-utility of breast cancer treatment with immediate reconstruction compared with delayed reconstruction.

Materials and methods:

We used a decision tree model and a one-year time horizon from the perspective of the third-party payer; the cost data were taken from the Colombian Instituto de Seguros Sociales 2001 rate manual plus a 30% adjustment according to the methodology of the Instituto de Evaluación Tecnológica en Salud, IETS, and the billing model of the Centro Javeriano de Oncología at the Hospital Universitario San Ignacio. The transition probabilities and profits were obtained from medical specialists, patients, and the medical literature. We also conducted univariate and probabilistic sensitivity analyses.

Results:

The expected costs per capita were COP$ 26,710,605 (USD$ 11,165) for the immediate reconstruction and COP$ 26,459,557 (USD$ 11,060) for the deferred reconstruction. Immediate reconstruction generated an incremental cost of COP$ 251,049 (USD$ 105) and 0.75 quality-adjusted life years (QALY), while deferred reconstruction generated 0.63 QALYs, with an incremental cost-utility ratio of COP$ 2,154,675 per QALY (USD$ 901).

Conclusions:

The cost per QALY did not exceed the acceptability threshold of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. The costs for the first year were similar. Both techniques are favorable for the Colombian health system, but the utility reported by patients and the literature is greater with the immediate reconstruction.

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