The hospital dropped the routine core needle biopsy hormone receptor test last January – and they reckon that the move would save the US alone $35m a year if all other hospitals followed suit.
The test is designed to see if the DCIS is cancerous, but DCIS is designated a ‘stage 0 cancer’, and up to 98 per cent of women who are diagnosed are still alive and well 10 years later. And the information gleaned from the test is rarely used or acted on anyway, says Pedram Argani, professor of pathology at the hospital. He described it as an expense without any justification.
(Source: American Journal of Surgical Pathology, 2016; 40: 1090)
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