A resource allocation metric for thyroid biopsies.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the adequacy of departmental resource allocation to ultrasound-guided biopsies of the thyroid gland. The numbers of image-guided breast, prostate, and thyroid biopsies performed in the authors' radiology department over a 12-month period in 2009 were determined. The predicted deaths in Canada from breast, prostate, and thyroid cancer over the same period were obtained from the Canadian Cancer Society. The number of biopsies performed on each organ was divided by the expected mortality from the respective cancer. Approximately 2,400 breast biopsies, 910 prostate biopsies, and 610 thyroid biopsies were performed. Using mortality as a measure of cancer burden, the biopsy/cancer burden ratio for thyroid cancer was 7 times that for breast cancer and 15 times that for prostate cancer. The skewed ratio in favor of thyroid biopsies supports concerns that current trends in the investigation of thyroid nodules may represent an overconsumption of health resources.