Advancing women's health in Egypt: an economic evaluation of the presidential initiative for nationwide breast cancer early detection and treatment

The Presidential Initiative for Women's Health, launched in July 2019, invites women aged 18 and over in every governorate to a risk questionnaire and, if at risk, a clinical breast examination at a primary care unit, with mammography used only as a diagnostic test after an abnormal clinical assessment, then biopsy, and free treatment through the national health insurance system or state-funded programmes for confirmed cases. This model-based economic evaluation used national programme data from July 2019 to September 2024 and compared the initiative with opportunistic detection using a decision tree and Markov model over a lifetime horizon from a societal perspective. Medical writing and publication were funded by Roche Egypt, which the authors state had no role in the study. Most authors are from the Ministry of Health and Population, including its women's health initiative, and from Egyptian cancer centres.