[Cancer and health economics].

Health economics on cancer medicine is a supportive tool of cancer care and is becoming one of the essential weapons against cancer. Its principal roles are to enhance the quality and efficacy and to secure the finance necessary to the cancer care. The economic aspects of cancer medicine and the methods of economic evaluation are overviewed with emphasis on cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis. The operational and interpretational checkpoints are introduced, and the problems and prospects of the practical use of the methods on clinical settings such as cancer chemotherapy are discussed.