The cost-effectiveness issue of adjuvant trastuzumab in early breast cancer

Trastuzumab has shown activity in patients with early breast cancer that overexpresses HER-2, and this drug has been employed in the adjuvant setting. Significant resources have been allocated to finance this new therapy. To support decision makers in their allocation of resources, cost-effectiveness models are constructed to compare the costs and outcomes of anticancer therapy. This survey focuses on studies exploring adjuvant trastuzumab therapy in early-stage breast cancer that have been published since 2003, which report on efficacy, benefit and/or cost data in this setting. The paper summarises the results, focuses on the level of evidence of these studies, compares the calculated cost-effectiveness ratios and makes recommendations for future cost-effectiveness analyses.