Operations Research Models for Cancer Screening

Early diagnosis through screening is an effective means of decreasing the death rate from cancer, the second leading cause of death in the US, since most cancers are now curable if detected early. On the other hand, the interventional procedures that result from detected abnormalities (both false and true positives) during screening and the significant cost of population-based screening of asymptomatic individuals require a careful analysis of the benefits and risks of screening in both utility and economic terms. In this article, we summarize the studies applying Operations Research (OR) tools to investigate issues related to cancer screening. In particular, we review OR studies considering cancer screening that are either briefly described or not mentioned in previous review articles. We classify relevant literature by cancer type including breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and cervical cancer. We also discuss several issues for future research in cancer screening. Keywords: cancer screening; simulation methodology; stochastic models; MDP model; QALY; POMDP

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