OBJECTIVES: Telehealth in oncology has emerged as a pivotal tool for providing continuous, accessible, and low-cost care to cancer patients, significantly altering the landscape of cancer treatment and management. This study provides a detailed assessment of the economic evaluation studies on telehealth interventions in cancer care, emphasizing the analysis of diverse telehealth and their economic impacts.

METHODS: A targeted literature review was conducted in PubMed using key terms related to digital health, cost or cost-effectiveness and oncology. Only full-text papers published in English language in the last five years were included (Dec 2018- Dec 2023). Data on publication details, country, interventions, economic analysis type, model structure, perspective, time horizon, costs, health outcomes, and cost-effectiveness information were extracted.

RESULTS: Of the 117 studies retrieved from the searches, only 12 were eligible to be included in the analysis. The review included studies from different countries, with the majority (n=4) from the US. The telehealth modalities were diverse: telemedicine (n=4), web/app-based (n=3), tele-screening (n=1), tele-rehabilitation (n=1), teledermoscopy (n=1), web-based patient-reported outcome surveillance (n=1) and teletrial (n=1). The type of evaluations observed were majorly cost effectiveness (n=5; 42%), cost benefit (n=1; 8%) and cost analysis (n=6; 50%). The predominant modelling approach in the included cost-effectiveness studies was Markov modeling (n=2/5; 40%). Time horizon ranged from 6 months to lifetime across studies. Cost categories reported were direct costs (treatment cost, follow-up costs, screening costs, etc.) and indirect costs (productivity loss). All studies reported telehealth to be either cost-effective or cost-saving, implying economic gains.

CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of telehealth is cost-effective or cost‐saving whilst simultaneously improving outcomes for distressed cancer patients, including increased patient interaction with healthcare professionals, and enhancing the overall patient well-being. As patients’ needs shift and the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, telehealth has the potential to be the key and cost-effective solution in comprehensive cancer care.