Are We Lacking Economic Evaluations in Gastric Cancer Treatment?

The rapid evolution of gastric cancer treatment in the face of escalating costs mandates thorough cost-effectiveness analyses to optimally direct future research and decision making. Relative to other cancer sites, the literature lacks high-quality economic evaluations to supplement clinical efficacy and effectiveness studies. As the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related death, gastric cancer is a major clinical and financial burden. Yet, very few estimations and assessments of overall costs of existing treatment methods or evaluations of cost effectiveness have been performed and fewer still meet current standards of high-quality methodology. Existing reports are often far from transparent, and very few studies present their findings according to established guidelines for the reporting of health economic data. More research in gastric cancer is required to provide high-quality cost-effectiveness data to supplement what is known clinically about disease management, and will require close collaboration between health services and policy researchers, health economists, and clinicians.