OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the economic burden of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Vietnam METHODS: Economic burden analysis has been conducted, following which the economic burden of NSCLC for the whole society of Vietnam has been evaluated by following formulas:

 C = ƩP_i x COI_i  in which,         C: economic burden of NSCLC in Vietnam; P_i: number of patients in stage i of NSCLC in Vietnam, COI_i: cost of NSCLC in stage i The analysis has been conducted based on the perspective of health insurance companies, therefore only medical direct cost has been evaluated. The cost of drugs and medical services has been averaged from the relevant drugs and medical services of some major hospitals in Vietnam. The number of patients in every stage of NSCLC has been retrieved from epidemiological database of Vietnam in 2010. The model has been developed to evaluate the economic burden of NSCLC  and also further adapt the changes of price and epidemiological data over years. RESULTS: The economic burden of NSCLC for the whole society of Vietnam is over 3,517 billion VND. In the structure of economic burden of NSCLC, the economic burden for drugs consists of 73.9% (2,600 billion VND), which is around 3 times higher than economic burden for medical services (900 billion VND). Comparing the economic burden of NSCLC by stages, it has been found that the economic burden of NSCLC increases with the increasing in the severity of disease. However stage III with the less severity than stage IV has the highest economic burden with the amount of 2,490 billion VND due to the high cost of treatment and high number of patients. CONCLUSIONS: The high economic burden of NCSLC should be considered to conduct the relevant healthcare policies, especially with high-cost drugs and patients in late stages of disease.