Valerie Sankatsing

Erasmus MC | Erasmus MC · Department of Public Health

Breast cancer screening policies have been designed decades ago, but current screening strategies may not be optimal anymore. Next to that, screening capacity issues may restrict feasibility. This cost‐effectiveness study evaluates an extensive set of breast cancer screening strategies in the Netherlands. Using the Microsimulation Screening Analysi...

Objectives Value of information (VOI) analysis can support health technology assessment decision making, but it is a long way from being standard use. The objective of this study was to understand barriers to the implementation of VOI analysis and propose actions to overcome these. Methods We performed a process evaluation of VOI analysis use with...

Background Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is a promising screening test, but its outcomes and cost-effectiveness remain uncertain.PurposeTo determine if biennial DBT is cost-effective in a screening setting, when compared with digital mammography (DM) in the Netherlands, and to quantify the uncertainty.Materials and Methods In this study, perfo...

In mammography screening programmes, women are screened according to a one‐size‐fits‐all principle. Tailored screening, based on risk levels, may lead to a better balance of benefits and harms. With microsimulation modelling, we determined optimal mammography screening strategies for women at lower (relative risk [RR] 0.75) and higher (RR 1.8) than...

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are generally believed to provide the most accurate evidence for the efficacy of mammography screening, in terms of breast cancer mortality reduction. Overdiagnosis can also be estimated from observational studies. In many countries, breast cancer screening is conducted routinely through an organized screening pr...

Background: Between 2003 and 2010 digital mammography (DM) gradually replaced screen-film mammography (SFM) in the Dutch breast cancer screening programme (BCSP). Previous studies showed increases in detection rate (DR) after the transition to DM. However, national interval cancer rates (ICR) have not yet been reported. Methods: We assessed prog...

Long-term follow-up data on the effects of screening are scarce and debate exists on the relative contribution of screening versus treatment to breast cancer mortality reduction. Our aim was therefore to assess the long-term effect of screening by age and time of implementation. We obtained data on 69,630 breast cancer deaths between 1980 and 2010...

In the Netherlands, routine mammography screening starts at age 50. This starting age may have to be reconsidered because of the increasing breast cancer incidence among women aged 40 to 49 and the recent implementation of digital mammography. We assessed the cost-effectiveness of digital mammography screening that starts between age 40 and 49, usi...

Background: Seasonal rotavirus (RV) epidemics partly overlap with those of other common childhood infections, thereby generating enormous, but poorly quantified, pressure on hospital resources during winter and spring. We assessed RV contribution to seasonal excess in all-cause pediatric hospitalizations and RV hospitalization incidence rate in an...