Advanced imaging modalities and new chemotherapy drugs are driving down cancer deaths, according to a new study, buttressing arguments that expensive advanced imaging is worth its cost.

A study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a think tank, argues that the growth in use of MRI and CT scans, as well as advances in anti-cancer medicine, has added three months to life expectancy at birth for Americans during the period under review, from 1996 to 2006.

About 40 percent of the almost 13 percent decline in cancer mortality from that period is attributable to the adoption of advanced imaging systems, according to the study's author, Dr. Frank Lichtenberg, a business professor at Columbia University in New York.

"The debate has been whether using these advanced diagnostic imaging techniques is worthwhile - do they lead to better outcomes? My study suggests they do lead to better outcomes," Dr. Lichtenberg told DOTmed News by phone from Melbourne, Australia, where he's a visiting professor at Victoria University.

For the study, Dr. Lichtenberg examined data on over 60 sites. One source was the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Query System, a national database that tallies cancer deaths. He compared cancer deaths at these sites with usage of advanced imaging modalities, such as MRI and CT scanners, in place of standard X-ray imaging. He found information on modality use by checking the MEDSTAT MarketScan database, which compiles statistics from employer-sponsored health plans.



Dr. Lichtenberg also used the MEDSTAT database to check the rate at which the sites administered new chemotherapy drugs made available in the 1990s, such as docetaxel, approved by the FDA in 1996.

Dr. Lichtenberg reasoned that sites with above average use of advanced imaging would see a higher-than-normal reduction in age-adjusted mortality from cancer, albeit with a delayed effect. Presumably, the life-saving effect of imaging modalities, which help doctors catch and treat cancers earlier, would be "lagged"; but they would see an immediate death reduction for use of the new breed of cancer-killing drugs.

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