OBJECTIVES: Evaluating effectiveness of oncological treatments and their costs becomes more and more important with respect to the high burden of malignant diseases. The aim of this research was to estimate the occurrence, survival and health care cost of colorectal-, breast-, prostate- and lung cancer patients based on the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) database. METHODS: Survival and cost analyses were performed on the NHIF database. Inclusion criteria: at least two consecutive ICD codes between 2000 and 2012, with a minimum of 30 days difference; or those with one ICD code, followed by death within 60 days. The following ICDs were considered: C18-C20 (colorectal), C33-C34 (lung), C50 (breast), C61 (prostate). 428 860 social security numbers met our inclusion criteria. The following indicators were estimated: number of new cases, mortality, time from diagnosis to treatment, survival and annual costs related and not related to the disease.   RESULTS: In 2011, the numbers of new cases were the following: colorectal cancer: 7299 breast cancer: 5842, prostate cancer: 3162, and lung cancer: 5499. The probability of 5-year overall survival from first diagnosis were 41.3%, 75.2%, 62.1% and 17.1%, respectively. Median time from first diagnosis to treatment initiation was less than 1 month in colorectal-, breast- and prostate cancer and less than 2 months in lung cancer. Annual cost of patient was 3166 EUR (colorectal cancer), 2585 EUR (breast cancer), 2833 EUR (prostate cancer) and 4158 EUR (lung cancer), respectively (2011 average exchange rate: 279.21 HUF/EUR). These figures indicate that annual cost of care of these malignant patients are less than half of the annual cost of kidney transplanted and haemophilia patients estimated with similar methodology. CONCLUSIONS: Data suggest that payer’s database is suitable for estimating epidemiologic and economic indicators of malignant disorders. Payer’s database analysis can support evidence-based policy-making.