title: Cost evaluations of radiotherapy: What do we know? An ESTRO-HERO analysis.
abstract: Although economic evidence is becoming mandatory to support health care decision-making, challenges remain in generating high quality cost data, especially for complex and rapidly evolving treatment modalities, such as radiotherapy. The overall aim of this systematic literature review was to critically analyse the type and quality of radiotherapy cost information available in cost calculation studies, from the health care provider's perspective, published since 1981. A selection process, based on strict and explicit criteria, yielded 52 articles. In spite of meeting our criteria these studies displayed large heterogeneity in scope, costing method, inputs and outputs. The limited use of conventional costing methodologies along with insufficient information on resource inputs hampered comparability across studies. A consistent picture of radiotherapy costs, based on methodologically sound costing studies, has yet to emerge. These results call for developing a well-defined and generally accepted cost methodology for performing economic evaluation studies in radiotherapy.
authors.affiliation: European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: ndefourny@estro.org.
authors.forename: Noémie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Defourny
authors.affiliation: University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dunscombe
authors.affiliation: Centre Régional de Lutte Contre le Cancer Léon Bérard, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Lionel
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Perrier
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Cai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Grau
authors.affiliation: Radiation Oncology Department, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Yolande
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lievens
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis / Q000379:methods; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000191:economics* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods
keywords: Cost assessment; Cost evaluation; External beam; Photon beam; Radiotherapy; Systematic review