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Place of economic studies in cancerologic literature Volume 27, issue 2, avril-mai-juin 2008

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Authors
Pôle pharmaceutique, CHU Jean Minjoz de Besançon, Inserm U645 EA-2284 UFR-133, Besançon, Service d’oncologie médicale, CHU Jean Minjoz de Besançon, Service d’hématologie, CHU Jean Minjoz de Besançon, Bibliothèque universitaire, Service de documentation, Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon

Introduction: the editorial place of economic evaluation in the field of cancerology is poorly known. “Medline” is certainly the most exhaustive bibliographic database in medicine, providing access to all references of the Index medicus. The aim of this study is to assess the place of economic studies in cancerologic literature and how it has evolved since 1990 through a review of the literature. Material/Method: the review of literature via Medline includes writings in French and in English published between 1990 and 2006. Key words were selected from the Mesh terminology: 1/oncology: neoplasm(s)/cancer(s)/tumor (s)/medical oncology, 2/economy: economic(s). The validation of our research strategy consisted of performing a systematic manual research in two journals and comparing it with computer research. Results: out of the 1 589 references obtained using the key words « cancerology » and « economy », 925 indeed dealt with economic evaluation in the field of cancerology (specificity = 58%). In most cases these were articles about oncology (81%), involving therapeutic intervention (76%). Only 8% of articles were published in a medical economics journal; 6% were by French teams, in French in 52% of cases, mainly in « Bulletin du cancer » (41%). The validation of the research strategy is like that respectively 51% and 58% of articles published in « Journal of Clinical Oncology » and « Pharmacoeconomics » were identified by the database literature review. Discussion/Conclusion: although our research lacks validity and thoroughness, our findings show that despite the growing impact of health costs, the place of economic evaluation in the field of cancerology is still limited. Published articles deal primarily with oncology and therapeutic intervention.