A simulation optimization for breast cancer screening in Turkey
Author
Keyf, Dilek
Advisor
Savaş, Özlem
Date
2014Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
Breast cancer is the most common cancer type among women in the world. 6.3 million
women were diagnosed with breast cancer between 2007 - 2012 and 25% of cancers in
women are breast cancer. Early diagnosis and early detection has an important role in
survival from breast cancer. Mammographic screening is proved to be the only screening
method that can reduce breast cancer mortality. Even though mammographic screening
has this significant benefit, it is expensive and it can decrease life quality and it can
generate false positive results. As a consequence, recommending an effective and costefficient
mammographic screening policy in terms of starting and ending ages and
screening frequencies has high importance. This study aims to optimize Ada’s Breast
Cancer Simulation Model using Simulated Annealing. This model was run for Turkish
women born in 1980 during their lifetime. The purpose of this study is to obtain an
optimal or near optimal policy in terms of life years gained and cost for Turkish women.
This study also aims to demonstrate the outcomes in terms of effectiveness and cost
when different combinations of policy variables are used.