Cost-utility analysis is rapidly becoming the standard pharmacoeconomic measure in oncology. In a recent report (JCO, 2000;18:3302), data from 40 published cost-utility studies were presented in a league table format. Most of those studies utilized nur. or physicians as proxies for the pt. in determining utility. OBJECTIVE: To determine if there is a difference between utility scores obtained from metastatic breast cancer pt. and oncology nur. METHODS: Using eight modified Markov modeled health states (Pharmacoeconomics, 1996; 60:504) describing metastatic breast cancer; the standard gamble procedure was utilized to obtain utility scores from 45 patients and 57 oncology nurses. Utility values were measured on a scale between 0.0 and 1.0. Independent t-tests were used to test for differences between groups using an alpha level of 0.05 (2-sided). RESULTS: Significant differences were found on all eight modeled health states: Modeled Disease State