The use of quantitative methods in planning national cancer control programmes. A WHO meeting.

There is a strong need to allocate in a rational and cost-effective way the available resources for cancer control in countries. Continuation of current priorities in resource allocation can only lead to unnecessarily high incidence, morbidity and mortality from cancer. Two cancer control models for cost-effectiveness, which were developed by WHO to help Member States set priorities in national cancer control programmes, have been tested and found useful. This article discusses cost-effectiveness analysis and describes the two models and their application in countries.