Abstract: OBJECTIVE To introduce the basic concepts and construction method of partitioned survival model aimed at providing methodological reference for the further study of health economic evaluation of metastatic cancer in China. METHODS The application and construction method of partitioned survival model in pharmacoeconomics were described with the example of economic evaluation of the treatments of metastatic renal cell carcinoma. RESULTS The natural outcome of metastatic renal cell carcinoma conformed to the basic principle of the partitioned survival model. The model could be divided into three incompatible living states. The keys to modelling included reconstruction of individual patients data, estimation of the parameters of survival distributions, and estimation of the number of patients in each state of each cycle. CONCLUSION The partitioned survival model is suitable for health economic evaluation of treatments of metastatic cancer.