- Promotor
- Promotor
- Co-promotor
- Date
- Wednesday 16 Dec 2020, 11:30 - 13:00
- Type
- PhD defence
- Spoken Language
- Dutch
- Space
- Professor Andries Querido room
- Building
- Education Center
- Location
- Erasmus MC
On Wednesday 16 December 2020, C.A.E. Kouwenberg will defend his PhD dissertation, entitled: ‘Psychological Impact and Cost-Effectiveness of Breast Cancer Surgery’.
In healthcare interventions should prolong life and/or increase quality of life (QoL). These two aspects, a longer life and a better quality of life, are combined in the outcome measure Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs). Patients who have been diagnosed with breast cancer will generally focus on the first goal. They want to survive the cancer. After diagnosis, the first choice a patient with breast cancer and her surgeon together need to make is between breast conserving surgery followed by radiation therapy (breast conserving therapy, BCT) or mastectomy. If they opt for mastectomy, the patient will be presented with another choice, whether and how she wants her breast to be reconstructed. In the present thesis it was investigated what it means for the patient and society when a choice is made for one of these different treatment pathways.
Due to corona, the PhD defences do not take place publicly in the usual way in the Senate Hall of the Professor Andries Querido Room. The candidates will defend their dissertation either in a small group or online.