Table 2 Inclusion and exclusion criteria for the systematic review

Population

All adults (aged 19 and above) who had cancer (i.e. localised tumour) of the oesophagus, stomach or gastro-oesophageal junction; free of metastatic disease.

Population aged below 19 years and had metastatic oesophageal, gastro-oesophageal or gastric cancer.

Interventions

Use of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) (also known as endosonography, echoendoscopy) staging in patient with oesophagus, gastro-oesophageal and gastric cancer.

Use of endoscopy only or ultrasound only, and use of EUS for non-cancer staging purposes e.g. treatment of cancer

Comparators

Standard staging algorithm e.g. trans-abdominal ultrasound scan, computed tomography (CT) scan. Partial economic evaluations, when no formal comparator was used, were included.

Outcomes

All relevant full economic evaluation studies outcomes including (but not be restricted to) cost per QALY and cost per life-year gained;

All other relevant economic outcomes including (but not be restricted to) resource use, direct and indirect costs, incremental benefits e.g. quality-adjusted survival or quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), health-related quality of life, cancer-specific quality of life and utility gained – this includes partial economic evaluation studies outcomes, which costs or consequences alone of a single intervention (e.g. EUS staging of GOC) were described, were included.

All outcomes unrelated to economic evidence of EUS staging of the oesophagus, gastro-oesophageal junction or gastric cancer.

Type of Evidence

Full economic evaluation evidence (i.e. cost-effectiveness, cost-utility and cost-benefit analyses) related to EUS staging of oesophageal, gastro-oesophageal junction and gastric cancer were considered.

Other economic studies that contain partial economic evaluation or no evaluation context (e.g. cost analyses, cost-description studies, cost-outcome descriptions, budgetary studies, outcome-description studies in terms of utility gained, health-related quality of life and cancer-specific quality of life measures such as QALYs and FACT-G score) were also considered.

Economic evaluation studies conducted alongside RCTs, non-RCTs, quasi-experimental trials, epidemiological research, cohort studies, and modelling studies were considered.

Non-research studies such as editorials, case reports or other descriptive studies.

General

Language – English.

Years – 1996-2016 and 2016–2018

Language – Not written or translated into English.

Years – Before 1996.