The lack of breast cancer screening in low and middle‐income countries results in later stage diagnosis and worsened outcomes for women. A cluster randomized trial was performed in Bogotá, Colombia between 2008 and 2012 to evaluate effects of opportunistic breast cancer screening. Thirteen clinics were randomized to an intervention arm and 13 to a control arm. Physicians in intervention clinics were instructed to perform clinical breast examination on all women aged 50–69 years attending clinics for non‐breast health issues, and then refer them for mammographic screening. Physicians in control clinics were not explicitly instructed to perform breast screening or mammography referrals, but could do so if they thought it indicated (“usual care”). Women were followed for 2‐years postrandomization. 7,436 women were enrolled and 7,419 (99.8%) screened in intervention clinics, versus 8,419 enrolled and 1,108 (13.1%) screened in control clinics. Incidence ratios (IR) of early, advanced and all breast cancers were 2.9 (95% CI 1.1–9.2), 1.0 (0.3–3.5) and 1.9 (0.9–4.1) in the first (screening) year of the trial, and the cumulative IR for all breast cancers converged to 1.4 (0.7–2.8) by the end of follow‐up (Year 2). Eighteen (69.2%) of 26 women with early stage disease had breast conservation surgery (BCS) versus 6 (42.5%) of 14 women with late‐stage disease (p = 0.02). Fifteen (68.2%) of 22 women with breast cancer in the intervention group had BCS versus nine (50.0%) of 18 women in the control group (p = 0.34). Well‐designed opportunistic clinic‐based breast cancer screening programs may be useful for early breast cancer detection in LMICs.

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Breast cancer is increasing in developing countries, and Colombia has a double burden from cervical and breast cancer. Suitable guidelines for breast cancer early detection are needed, and the Breast Health Global Initiative provides a favorable framework for breast cancer control in low resource nations. The Colombian National Cancer Institute developed evidence-based guidelines for breast cancer early detection in which coordinated early detection in symptomatic women and hospital-based screening in women aged 50–69 are recommended. A pilot project to evaluate programmatic approaches (opportunistic screening) was designed, and it is expected that organized hospital-based screening for breast cancer will represent a move towards population-based screening in the near future in accordance with country specific conditions.

Introducción. En países de ingresos altos, el tamoxifeno ha venido siendo reemplazado por los inhibidores de la aromatasa -como el anastrazol-en la terapia hormonal adyuvante en el cáncer temprano de mama con receptor hormonal positivo, por sus mejores resultados en tiempo libre de enfermedad. Es necesario identificar si este cambio resulta costo-efectivo en los países de ingreso medio, como Colombia. Objetivo. Evaluar el costo-efectividad para Colombia del anastrazol comparado con el tamoxifeno, como terapia inicial por cinco años en mujeres posmenopáusicas con cáncer temprano de mama y receptor hormonal positivo. Materiales y métodos. Éste es un análisis basado en la literatura. Se utilizó el modelo de Markov para describir la historia natural de la enfermedad y modelar los tratamientos. La efectividad se midió en tiempo libre de enfermedad. Las probabilidades de transición y los efectos secundarios de los fármacos se extrajeron de la literatura. Se tomó la mediana de costos de algunas empresas promotoras de salud y del Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, en pesos colombianos del 2007. Se hizo análisis de sensibilidad probabilística y de una sola vía de las variables de costo.Resultados. En comparación con el tamoxifeno, la terapia con anastrazol genera un tiempo adicional libre de recaída de 0,49 años; cada año libre de recaída cuesta Col$ 27'210.604 y Col$ 37'071.337 con una tasa de descuento del 3%. En el caso de efectos mantenidos, las razones de costo-efectividad con descuento y sin él son Col$ 23'617.400 y Col$ 16'140.282. Conclusiones. La utilización de anastrazol genera un costo por año libre de recaída superior al producto interno bruto per cápita de Colombia (Col$ 7'521.363 para 2007). En consecuencia, resulta recomendable para Colombia continuar con el tamoxifeno por cinco años.Palabras clave: neoplasias de la mama, agentes antineoplásicos hormonales, análisis costo-beneficio, inhibidores de la aromatasa, economía farmacéutica, ColombiaCost-benefit analysis of anastrazol and tamoxifen in adjuvant treatment of hormone receptorpositive, post-menopausal breast cancer Introduction. In high-income countries, tamoxifen has been replaced by aromatase inhibitors such as anastrozole in adjuvant hormone therapy for early breast cancer. These drugs target patients with positive hormone receptors, due to the better results achieved for disease-free survival. The costeffectiveness of this treatment change has not been evaluated in middle income countries.Objective. The cost effectiveness of anastrozole vs tamoxifen was assessed during five-years of adjuvant treatment of hormone receptor-positive, post-menopausal early breast cancer patients. Materials and methods. This is a literature-based analysis. The natural history of the breast cancer and the effects of treatment were modeled as a Markov process. Effectiveness was defined as disease-free survival. Transition probabilities for the disease and adverse effects were obtained from the literature. Costs were defined as the median of actual costs provided by heal...

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