Economic evaluation of alternative adjuvant chemotherapy modalities for colorectal carcinoma.

Concerns regarding quality of care, combined with financial constraints, have fostered the growth of health economic analyses. The accompanying cost-effectiveness analysis of intraportal adjuvant chemotherapy by Messori et al. illustrates the strengths and limitations of health economic investigations. The reader of cost-effectiveness studies must examine the relevance and perspective of the cost data, the accuracy and generalizability of the assumed clinical benefits, and the relationship of the investigated treatment strategies to standard clinical practice. As clinicians learn to interpret health economic analyses and other forms of outcomes-based research, unnecessary expenditures will be avoided and the quality of care will improve.