Economic evaluations in cancer clinical trials

Authors: Stephen Goodall and Rosalie Viney Prepared: July 2011 SUMMARY • The aim of economic evaluation is to inform clinical and health system decision making and policy • Every time a decision is made about a new technology or treatment, a decision is also made about resource allocation • Economic evaluation is a formal and systematic comparison of the costs and benefits associated with two or more interventions • Once the costs and benefits are known for each treatment group the results are expressed as an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio • Randomised controlled trials are commonly used as a vehicle for economic evaluations, however not all clinical trials are suitable • Some modification of the trial design may be required to incorporate an economic evaluation. Areas to consider include − population − comparators − sample size − endpoints − follow up − perspective and − data collection