Cost-effective use of breast biopsy techniques in a veterans health care system

Over a recent 3-year period, we observed a 3.8-fold increase in the use of percutaneous image-guided techniques for the evaluation of breast lesions in the VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System. Diagnosis by percutaneous techniques allows planning for a definitive surgery if a lesion is malignant or possible avoidance of a surgical intervention if the lesion is benign. Our data show that the costs associated with open biopsy techniques exceed those associated with percutaneous biopsies. For VA hospitals with available resources, the option of image-guided percutaneous biopsy techniques is a cost-effective alternative to open surgical biopsy.