Analysis of economic evaluations of pharmacological cancer treatments in Spain between 1990 and 2010.

Economic evaluation of pharmacological cancer treatment is a critical clinical problem currently under consideration worldwide. We have analysed their main characteristics in Spain between 1990 and 2010 following a systematic review of the 29 complete economic analyses published. The pathology most frequently evaluated was non-small cell lung cancer (31 %). Cost-effectiveness analyses (69 %) were the most frequent analyses. A wide range of incremental cost-effectiveness values (295-160,667 € /QALY) has been reported, and mostly are developed from the perspective of the National Health System (65.5 %). However, none of the studies estimated the indirect costs. The major conclusion is that the absence of regulations concerning the application of the efficiency criterion in decision-making on the subject of price and financing and, most importantly, the fact that these are not included in Spanish hospitals forms make it difficult to analyse the real impact of economic evaluations of cancer treatments on such decisions.