A cost-benefit analysis of chemotherapy for gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Surgery remains the mainstay of any curative treatment; however, those patients who are considered not amenable of curative resection generally receive chemotherapy, in order to obtain palliation of symptoms and improved survival. Many drugs have been tested in several combination regimens yielding higher response rates. In spite of the fact that chemotherapy has been extensively used in advanced gastrointestinal cancer, there are few studies that focus on its economic costs. The aim of this paper is to review the results of the main studies regarding the relationship between the cost of chemotherapy and its effectiveness in advanced gastric and gastrointestinal cancer patients.