OBJECTIVES: Identify key concepts and parameters incorporated in Economic Evaluations (EE) using Decision-Analytic Modelling (DAM) of cancer drugs to elaborate a Check-List to assess the quality and consistency of these studies.

METHODS: An extensive literature search was conducted in PubMed over the period spanning 2015–2017 to identify EE studies in the Oncology field in ten selected journals specialized on Health Economics and/or Oncology. Budget Impacts and Cost Analysis were excluded from the analysis. The extracted articles were handled with the citation managing software REVTool and the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards guidelines (CHEERS) and a good practice check-list in DAM were used to identify the main items mentioned in these studies.

RESULTS: The literature search generated 661 studies and 41 of which meeting the selected criteria were analysed (40 Cost-Effectiveness Analysis and one Cost-Minimization Analysis). All studies mentioned the parameters included in the CHEERS guidelines with a few exceptions: one of them did not report the discount rate, two did not describe the source of funding and two did not report the potential conflict of interest. Regarding the specific Check-List for DAM studies, none of the EE incorporated all its items, e.g., the half-cycle correction was not reported in 33/41 EE; eight did not provide a graphical description of the model; the adverse events of the interventions were not incorporated in four; the probabilistic sensitivity analysis was missing in three and the deterministic one in other three studies, etc.

CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that some important concepts have not been incorporated or their use has not been properly justified in most of EE of Oncology drugs based on DAM. Due to the new characteristics of recent marketed Oncology medicines, such as Immuno-Oncology therapies, the development of a specific Check-List to evaluate these EE is necessary to ensure their quality.