Developing a cost-effective analysis of anastrozole and megestrol acetate for the palliative treatment of breast cancer

This thesis demonstrates the applicability of pharmacoeconomic analysis for two drug therapies used in the palliative treatment of breast cancer. The pharmacoeconomic evaluation explores the techniques that would be used in performing a cost-effectiveness analysis of anastrozole and megestrol acetate therapies. The thesis discusses the methods for collecting, interpreting, and extrapolating clinical and economic data. The analytical techniques include: measuring the effectiveness of breast cancer therapies, applying clinical decision analysis methods to produce a decision tree, reviewing clinical trial data and examining the clinical findings with the numbers needed to treat approach, applying survival data to a pharmacoeconomic evaluation, the valuation of resource items, constructing and using a costs and outcomes table, and calculating the cost-effectiveness ratio and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio.