[Economic evaluation of targeted cancer therapy].

Medical technology, especially cancer therapy, has been recognized as having a major role both in improving health care and in increasing costs. Economic evaluation is considered the basis for resource allocation because it allows decision makers to consider the relative value of alternative uses of available resources. Analytical techniques used for economic evaluation in the healthcare sector are designed to compare alternative treatment strategies in terms of cost and outcome. There are 4 types of economic evaluation: cost-minimization analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, and cost-benefit analysis. The difference between these techniques relates to the way in which the outcomes are measured. Cost-utility analysis reflects value for money in terms of a single type of health outcome, such as quality-adjusted life year(QALY). This approach incorporates both an increase in survival time(extra life years)and changes in the quality of life(with or without increased survival)into 1 measure. An increase in the quality of life is expressed as a utility value on a scale of 0(dead)to 1 (perfect quality of life). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio(ICER)in this case is expressed as the incremental cost to gain an extra QALY. The main attraction of cost-utility analysis is its ability to compare different interventions for different diseases, and this type of economic evaluation is widely used for targeted cancer therapy.