The principles of the medico-economic évaluation applied to lung cancer

The interest of economic evaluations in the field of health is to provide the possibility of prioritizing, on the basis of two criteria (clinical effectiveness and costs), medical programs that can be carried out, and to help in setting objectives in public health, at medium or long term, in accordance with available financial resources. This article provides a reminder of the key principles of health economic evaluation and presents a literature review of the main economic researches that have contributed to the definition of efficient public programs in the field of lung cancer, in a context where precision medicine is developping. The results of these economic evaluations show that: i) despite an important immediate economic cost, individualized medicine coupling biomarker testing with targeted therapies is a source of savings (i.e. “cost-saving” strategy) compared to standard care; ii) the treatments, including the most costly and efficient ones, result in gaining years of life for a cost-effectiveness ratio never higher than those generally accepted as the maximum level for interventions in the healthcare field.