title: Economic evaluations of psychosocial interventions in cancer: a systematic review.
abstract: Although the effectiveness of many psychosocial interventions for people with cancer has been established, one barrier to implementation in routine clinical care is a lack of data on cost-effectiveness. We conducted a systematic review to assess the cost-effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for improving psychological adjustment among people with cancer.
  
  
  
  A systematic review of the literature, study appraisal and narrative synthesis.
  
  
  
  Eight studies involving 1668 patients were identified. Four of these reported outcomes in a cost per quality adjusted life year (QALY) framework. Six studies reported psychosocial interventions to be cost-effective for improving health-related quality of life, mood, pain, distress or fear of cancer progression, compared with usual care. Of the six psychosocial interventions identified as cost-effective, three were cognitive-behavioural therapy-based interventions, one was a nurse-delivered telephone follow-up plus educational group programme, one was a group-based exercise and psychosocial intervention and one was a series of 10 face-to-face or telephone-based individual support sessions delivered by a nurse. The quality of studies assessed according to the Consensus Health Economic Criteria-list criteria was good overall; however, some studies were limited by their choice of outcome measure and omission of important categories of costs.
  
  
  
  Several psychosocial interventions, particularly those based on cognitive-behavioural therapy, have been demonstrated to represent good value for money in cancer care. Future research should include a clear definition of the economic question, inclusion of all relevant costs, and consideration of utility-based quality of life measures for QALY estimation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research, Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Mbathio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dieng
authors.affiliation: Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research, Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Anne E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Cust
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Paediatrics, School of Women's and Children's Health, UNSW Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Nadine A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Kasparian
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cancer Research, Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research and Melanoma Institute Australia, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Graham J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.affiliation: NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Rachael L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Morton
mesh_terms: D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000191:economics* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome