A treatment decision model for breast cancer patients

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. While breast cancer screening policies have been widely studied with the goal to achieve early detection, limited research has been done to optimize treatment decisions once a screening policy is established. In this paper, we propose a...

Full description

Autores:
Bolívar Vargas, Juan David
Tipo de recurso:
Fecha de publicación:
2010
Institución:
Universidad de los Andes
Repositorio:
Séneca: repositorio Uniandes
Idioma:
eng
OAI Identifier:
oai:repositorio.uniandes.edu.co:1992/12616
Acceso en línea:
http://hdl.handle.net/1992/12616
Palabra clave:
Neoplasmas de la mama - Tratamiento - Investigaciones
Mamografía - Investigaciones
Procesos de Markov
Ingeniería
Rights
openAccess
License
https://repositorio.uniandes.edu.co/static/pdf/aceptacion_uso_es.pdf
Description
Summary:Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. While breast cancer screening policies have been widely studied with the goal to achieve early detection, limited research has been done to optimize treatment decisions once a screening policy is established. In this paper, we propose a dynamic decision model to determine optimal breast cancer treatment decisions that consider both the impact of over-treatment and the potential delay in cancer detection. These two failures are caused by spontaneous cancer regression and type II error in mammography results, respectively. Our goal is to maximize a patient's life score, which depends on various factors: age, cancer stage, estrogen receptor status, type of treatment and the patient's personal opinion about the side effects. Our results indicate that a treatment decision is not always the best option for a patient, and when the decision is to treat the best treatment decision is not always the same. The optimal treatment policy depends on various factors such as age, personal preferences and cancer stage.