title: The cloudy crystal ball of cost-effectiveness studies.
abstract: Despite the use of identical clinical trial data (Anastrazole, Tamoxifen, Alone or in Combination for the adjuvant treatment of postmenopausal women with localised hormone receptor-positive breast cancer data), not dependent on differences between countries, the outcome of 11 published cost-effectiveness analyses varied more than 20-fold. The observed wide variation in predicted life-years gained (a parameter derived from clinical trial data) demonstrates that authors used substantially different methods for handling the same data. We therefore consider it to be of utmost importance to strive for standardization of and better guidance for disease-specific modeling in economic evaluations.
authors.affiliation: Science Faculty, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Gerardus W J
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Frederix
authors.forename: Johan L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Severens
authors.forename: Anke M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hövels
authors.forename: Jan A M
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Raaijmakers
authors.forename: Jan H M
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Schellens
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017059:Models, Econometric; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards*; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years
keywords: cancer; cost-effectiveness; decision making; standardization