Editorial

The costs of new cancer treatments are often high and the additional burden that is placed on the hospital budget raises concern. This special issue addresses the economics of cancer treatment by reviewing the literature on the contribution of new and existing drugs to cost-effective cancer treatment, and presents some new results. The first part describes the basic methods of economic evaluation. Next, methodological and practical issues concerning economic evaluation in general and in cancer treatment in particular are discussed. As cancer treatment itself may have an impact on quality of life, not only life length, but also quality of the years gained will be considered as outcome of treatment.
The second part presents the costs and effects of new and existing treatments in several patient groups. The state of the art [...]
The final part deals with the administration of new and expensive drugs in several patient groups. [...]