An economic evaluation will compare health outcomes for the proposed scenario of EGFR gene mutation testing plus erlotinib or platinum-based chemotherapy versus the current scenario where there is no EGFR gene mutation testing and patients with previously untreated locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC are treated with platinum-based doublet chemotherapy. The applicant claims that erlotinib results in statistically significant improvements in progression free survival and objective response rate, while overall survival data are immature and with a high rate of known crossover (Rosell R et al 2011). The primary economic evaluation outcome measure is therefore expected to be quality-adjusted life-years gained (QALYs).
