Abstract

Contents

• NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme
• Glossary
• List of abbreviations
• Executive summary
• 1. Background
  • Description of health problem
  • Description of technologies under assessment
  • Current service provision
• 2. Definition of the decision problem
  • Decision problem
  • Overall aims and objectives of assessment
• 3. Assessment of clinical effectiveness
  • Methods for reviewing effectiveness
  • Results
  • Summary
• 4. Assessment of cost-effectiveness
  • Systematic review of existing cost-effectiveness evidence
  • Overview and critique of GlaxoSmithKline economic evaluation
  • Overview and critique of Roche economic evaluation
  • Independent economic assessment
  • Summary of cost-effectiveness evidence
• 5. Discussion
• 6. Conclusions and research recommendations
  • Recommendations for further research
• Acknowledgements
• References
• Appendix 1 Literature search strategies
• Appendix 2 Tables of excluded studies with rationale
• Appendix 3 Final protocol
• Health Technology Assessment programme

Suggested citation:

Fleeman N, Bagust A, Boland A, Dickson R, Dundar R, Moonan M, et al. Lapatinib and trastuzumab in combination with an aromatase inhibitor for the first-line treatment of metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer which over-expresses human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2): a systematic review and economic analysis. Health Technol Assess 2011;15(42).

Declared competing interests of the authors: In the past, Anne Armstrong has received consultancy fees, reimbursement for attending a conference and hospitality at a conference, from Roche. The North West Medicines Information Centre, where Helen Davis is the Assistant Director, has received a consultancy fee from GlaxoSmithKline in the past for participation in a group discussing various mechanisms for managing NHS medicines budgets.

The research reported in this issue of the journal was commissioned and funded by the HTA programme on behalf of NICE as project number 09/101/01. The protocol was agreed in February 2010. The assessment report began editorial review in September 2010 and was accepted for publication in January 2011. The authors have been wholly responsible for all data collection, analysis and interpretation, and for writing up their work. The HTA editors and publisher have tried to ensure the accuracy of the authors' report and would like to thank the referees for their constructive comments on the draft document. However, they do not accept liability for damages or losses arising from material published in this report.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the HTA programme or the Department of Health.