Evaluating cancer costs in NCI trials

Economic evaluation is playing an increasingly important role in the assessment of clinical treatment strategies for cancer patients. Physicians and patients can use the comprehensive data on the cost and effectiveness of cancer therapies emerging from economic studies to help make treatment decisions. The data from economic analyses will afford clinical investigators an increasingly important tool to help determine the optimal treatment strategies for cancer patients and to help inform health policy decision-makers about the importance of specific cancer therapeutic strategies. In this chapter, we have outlined a set of procedures that can be used to assess the costs of care within NCI clinical trials. We review the economic framework for assessment of clinical trials, then review a proposed strategy for economic assessment. The design was successfully implemented, and the results have been recently published.