Cost-effectiveness and sustainability of breast cancer screening and new anti-cancer drugs

In our first lesson together we used to ask to our students "what is the price of a life?". The answer was always "there is no price of a life". Although nice, it’s not true; unfortunately, the only costless man is a dead one. In the last few years there has been a heated debate about cost and benefit in oncology, focused in particular on breast cancer screening and the availability and affordability of new drugs. In our opinion, an affordable, ethically and politically correctbudget for healthcare is government issued as part of a social healthcare system. In this context, all governments should declare how much is affordable in relationship with the economic situation of the country and decide what drugs and treatments can be provided for free (as part of a life-long system of national taxation) and which cannot