LIFE QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF BREAST-CANCER PATIENTS RECEIVING ADJUVANT THERAPY USING INCOMPLETE DATA

Previous research on the effects of adjuvant treatment for women with operable breast cancer focused exclusively on disease-free and overall survival. In this study we evaluate life quality of premenopausal nod e-positive breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy for at least three months. For the first time, a modified latent variable model is used to assess treatment outcome in a prospective clinical tr ial. This poses a number of econometric problems which did not occur i n the preceding studies. One of them is how to deal with patients whos e records are incomplete. The data are provided by the International B reast Cancer Study Group (study VI). The results indicate that the low est dose treatment improves life quality faster than the remaining thr ee alternatives. At the end of the 24 months observation period no sig nificant differences between the four treatment options remain. Althou gh the lowest dose treatment is also the least costly no definite conc lusion regarding cost-effectiveness can be drawn at this stage since s urvival data is not yet available.