Cost-effectiveness of patient navigation for lung cancer – a systematic review

Background:  Patient navigation (PN) programs have been shown to increase patient satisfaction and quality of life among patients with lung cancer and to decrease time to treatment. However, the general cost-effectiveness of such programs in the context of lung cancer remains unknown. Hence, the aim of the present systematic review was to analyze the scientific literature and quantitatively assess the level of evidence on the cost-effectiveness of PN programs for patients diagnosed with lung cancer.  Methods:  A systematic literature search was carried out in PubMed, EMBASE, CENTRAL, CINAHL and PsycINFO databases without time limitations. Randomized controlled trials written in English or German were eligible for inclusion if any results regarding the cost-effectiveness of personally delivered PN programs for patients after lung cancer diagnosis were reported. A manual search was carried out to supplement the systematic search. Additionally, the authors of ongoing or unpublished relevant research were contacted. The titles, abstracts and full texts of relevant citations were screened independently by two reviewers.   Results:  The initial search yielded 814 articles, including four papers identified manually. Twenty-one articles were included in the full text screening. However, no study met the inclusion criteria. Contacting the authors of ongoing or unpublished research and cross-cancer studies did not yield any studies that met the inclusion criteria.   Conclusion:  Since no study met the inclusion criteria, this study reveals a research gap in this area. Furthermore, no conclusive statement regarding the cost-effectiveness of patient navigation programs for patients diagnosed with lung cancer can be made. Since the implementation of new healthcare models such as PN at least partially depends on their cost-effectiveness, future attempts to evaluate PN programs for lung cancer patients should consider examining outcomes related to cost-effectiveness to overcome the identified research gap.