Costs and benefits of antiemetic therapy.

Allocating part of the diminishing resources of the health-care system to new therapeutic approaches needs a decision analysis which should be understood by all partners. This paper defines some of the economic evaluation methods used recently. Through examples of cost/effectiveness and cost/benefit studies performed in the U.K. and Switzerland it shows that, in the European environment at least, specially now that prices are decreasing, serotonin-receptor (5-HT3) antagonists can and should be used to prevent acute nausea and vomiting.