OBJECTIVES: Gemcitabine/cisplatin (GC) is one of several novel chemotherapy regimens available for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. An economic cost-minimisation analysis using a phase III randomized clinical trial was performed to evaluate the relative total cost of treatment of GC with other novel agent regimens in Taiwan. METHODS: The analysis was based upon the trial published by Schiller et al. (2002) with GC, paclitaxel/cisplatin (PC), paclitaxel/carboplatin (PCA) and docetaxel/cisplatin (DC) as treatment arms. The economic evaluations were conducted using the retrospective model in European countries published by Schiller et al. (2004). Taiwan costs were drawn from Taiwan National Health Insurance Reimbursement database of year 2001. RESULTS: The economic evaluation indicated the costing of chemotherapy drug acquisition per patient for GC is NTD128,872 (USD$3,816) (1USD=$33.77NTD) and NTD 151,293 (USD$4,480), NTD 251,126 (USD$7,436), NTD 143,377 (USD$4,246) for PC, PCA and DC, respectively. The average total cost per patient for GC is NTD 162,984 (USD$4,826). This was lower than those treated with PC, PCA and DC with average savings of NTD 33,389 (USD$989), NTD 116,962 (USD$3,463) and NTD 20,611 (USD$610) per patient, respectively. These results proved robust in light of a univariate sensitivity analysis. CONCLUSIONS: GC was associated with lower total treatment costs than PC, PCA and DC from the perspective of the national health reimbursement of Taiwan. Given similar efficacy findings in these studies, GC is offering cost-savings potential in the treatment of advanced NSCLC is supported. The limitations of this research include the complex of the disease; the conventional chemotherapy regimens as well as the cost of approaches for adverse events management are different by each health care provider.