If you have a prostate, or think you may ever get cancer, you should read this…

Advancing healthcare technology is great, but it’s also one of the main drivers of healthcare inflation. the NY Times had a big article today in the business section, about using nuclear particle accelerators – "formerly used only for exotic physics research" – but now looking to use them to replace normal radiation therapy for the treatment of some cancers, especially prostate cancer.

But the cost! How does society weigh up the cost effectiveness of this sort of treatment?

Hospitals Look to Nuclear Tool to Fight Cancer – New York Times

Some experts say the push reflects the best and worst of the nation’s market-based health care system, which tends to pursue the latest, most expensive treatments — without much evidence of improved health — even as soaring costs add to the nation’s economic burden.

The machines accelerate protons to nearly the speed of light and shoot them into tumors. Scientists say proton beams are more precise than the X-rays now typically used for radiation therapy, meaning fewer side effects from stray radiation and, possibly, a higher cure rate.

But a 222-ton accelerator — and a building the size of a football field with walls up to 18-feet thick in which to house it — can cost more than $100 million. That makes a proton center, in the words of one equipment vendor, “the world’s most expensive and complex medical device.”

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“I’m fascinated and horrified by the way it’s developing,” said Dr. Anthony L. Zietman, a radiation oncologist at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital, which operates a proton center. “This is the dark side of American medicine.”

Once hospitals have made such a huge investment, experts like Dr. Zietman say, doctors will be under pressure to guide patients toward proton therapy when a less costly alternative might suffice.

Similar cost concerns were expressed in the past about other new technology like M.R.I. scanners. While those have become accepted staples of medical practice, there is still concern about their overuse and the impact on medical spending.