Objective Review the status of the direct health cost of nonsmall-cell lung cancer , and to put forward policy recommendations. Methods Database including PubMed, Cochrane Library and Chinese BioMed were searched, and studies literatures about the direct health cost of nonsmall-cell lung cancer. Results Twenty two studies were analyzed in this paper including 20 foreign studies. Normally, international researches about direct medical cost of treating the nonsmall-cell lung cancer investigate total cost from the first diagnosis until several years later. The discrepancy in the results could be explained by different payments, treatment patterns and research methods in different countries. The direct medical cost of nonsmall-cell lung cancer is expensive especially the cost of in-patient. It’s increase with the time of therapy. Most of the researches in China about direct medical cost of nonsmall-cell lung cancer focus on per in-patient fees. Conclusion Facing the increasingly heavy economic burden of nonsmall-cell lung cancer, to lower the incidence of this disease and to reduce the treatment related cost should be taken into account., the prevention of nonsmall-cell lung cancer carcinoma should be enhanced, Such as tobacco control, environment improvement, etc. A proper incentive mechanism should be established.