Objective: Generate cost-effectiveness information to allow policy makers optimize breast cancer (BC) policy in Mexico.
Material and methods: We constructed a Markov model that incorporates four interrelated processes of the disease: the natural history; detection using mammography; treatment; and other competing-causes mortality, according to which 13 different strategies were modeled.
Results: Strategies (starting age, % of coverage, frequency in years)= (48, 25, 2), (40, 50, 2) and (40, 50, 1) constituted the optimal method for expanding the BC program, yielding 75.3, 116.4 and 171.1 thousand pesos per life-year saved, respectively.
Conclusions: The strategies included in the optimal method for expanding the program produce a cost per life-year saved of less than two times the GNP per capita and hence are cost-effective according to WHO Commission on Macroeconomics and Health criteria.