The cost of finding breast cancer late can be staggering–both in dollars and in years of life. A new study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society found that, among Medicare beneficiaries, first-year oral prescription drug costs averaged roughly $700 for localized breast cancer—and about $25,000 after it had spread. Other cancer-attributable medical spending more than doubled after the disease had spread, from about $34,000 to more than $73,000.
Those figures underscore the enormous value of finding breast cancer sooner. Yet our health care system still makes timely screening and diagnosis harder than they should be. First lady Melania Trump's new women's health initiative offers an opportunity to change that.
The administration's effort includes a focus on breast cancer screening and timely diagnostic follow-up. Achieving those goals will require greater patient freedom, less administrative friction, and fewer restrictions on competition. There is little question that early detection saves lives.
The breast-cancer death rate has fallen 44 percent since its 1989 peak, a decline the American Cancer Society attributes to earlier diagnosis and better treatment. American women also fare well compared with their foreign peers. In a major comparison of cancer-registry data, five-year breast-cancer survival was about 90 percent in the United States, 88 percent in Canada, 87 percent in France, and 86 percent in the United Kingdom.
Yet breast cancer diagnoses are becoming more common, partly because better screening and diagnostic technology find cancers that once went undetected and partly because of changes in risk factors such as obesity, alcohol consumption, and reproductive patterns. In recent years, diagnoses have risen about 1 percent annually overall and 1.4 percent annually among women younger than 50. Too many women still encounter unnecessary friction in getting screened.
In 2023, 79.8 percent of women aged 50 to 74 reported having a mammogram within the previous two years, a rate that has barely budged since 2019. Screening rates also vary considerably by state. Federal rules allow women to obtain a mammogram without a physician referral.
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