Renal mass biopsy to guide treatment decisions for small incidental renal tumors: a cost-effectiveness analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

To evaluate the effectiveness, cost, and cost-effectiveness of using renal mass biopsy to guide treatment decisions for small incidentally detected renal tumors.

Materials and methods

A decision-analytic Markov model was developed to estimate life expectancy and lifetime costs for patients with small (< or = 4-cm) renal tumors. Two strategies were compared: renal mass biopsy to triage patients to surgery or imaging surveillance and empiric nephron-sparing surgery. The model incorporated biopsy performance, the probability of track seeding with malignant cells, the prevalence and growth of benign and malignant tumors, treatment effectiveness and costs, and patient outcomes. An incremental cost-effectiveness analysis was performed to identify strategy preference under

SUBMITTER: Pandharipande PV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2923731 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature