Replacing MRI withCE Mammography For Staging Of Breast Cancer May Lead To Considerable Cost Cuts

CESM (Contrast-Enhanced Spectral Mammography) is an excellent alternative for breast cancer patients who find MRI way more expensive.

Even for the facilities offering scan facilities to breast cancer patients, this process can save a sizeable volume of cost every year. In short, CESM is a sustainable and affordable solution for both patients and service providers.

The experts from the UK’s two most prestigious institutions, King’s College and the University of Dundee joined hands to compare the costs associated with both the modalities for conducting breast cancer detection and staging. The study revealed an astounding fact.

The team mentioned that if facilities switch from CE-MRI (Contrast-Enhanced MRI) to CESM, the amount they could save would be around £81,570. In every way, this is a whooping sum of money enough to motivate any large facility to change its modalities.

CESM – A Superior Alternative

H. Jin and S.L. Savaridas are two of the authors of this new paper published in Clinical Radiology. They suggested that this finding could emphasize the importance of CESM asthe expensive MRI methods impose access restrictionson many patients.

The outcomes simply underlined that people with limited resources can also take benefit from scanning for detecting and treating breast cancer.  This is surely an inclusive thing and positive news for all.

Additionally, owing to the increasing pressure on medical services, timely access to MRI is becoming a challenge.

However, several pieces of evidence suggest that CESM can be an excellent alternative for MRI scans and save the time the patients otherwise might have wasted waiting for their turn. Thus, according to the authors, CESM can be critical for diseases as fatal as breast cancer.

The duo also pointed out that switching to CESM from MRI does not come with any loss of accuracy. Researchers have already uncovered that the outcomes of CESM are not only comparable with MRI images but also superior to them at times. Therefore, CESM will perform the tests accurately and sometimes better than MRI.

Cost Saving For Facilities

Moreover, this switch could save a lot of money for the small facilities for whom every penny matters. According to the research-based data, in the USA alone, small facilities can save up to $6,926 to $25,711 simply by adopting the CESM technique.

This makes the entire process more significant. The authors further noted that the services will save money while the patients will get to avail of a more efficient service – a very rare combination for sure.

However, the team also added that the volume of savings might vary based on the number of patients undergoing the process or technical upgrades required to implement CESM. On the other hand, substituting an existing mammography system with a CESM might not be equally return-bearing.

Long-Run Impact

The experts further mentioned that the numbers suggested in the findings bear no inconsistencies with the available data from America. This means implementation of CESM in place of MRI would lead to cost-cutting and better services at the same time. However, the final outcomes may vary based on whether the facility is privately owned or operated with Government’s aid.

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