Cost-effectiveness of Linac-based single-isocenter non-coplanar technique (HyperArcTM) for brain metastases radiosurgery

In the last few years, the major change has occurred in the expansion of indications for radiosurgery (SRS) to include patients with more than four brain metastases (BM). To address the expanding indications for SRS in the treatment of multiple BMs, HyperArcTM (Varian Medical System, Palo Alto, CA, U.S.) was recently introduced in order to automate and simplify sophisticated treatments such as SRS/FSRT for multiple lesions (up to 20 BM). In this editorial some consideration about HyperArc cost-effectiveness were discussed in terms of reduction of treatment delivery time (multiple intracranial targets can be treated in a few minutes), the reduction of overall treatment time (treatment course of SRS of multiple BMs in a single session, rather than having to irradiate lesion per lesion during separate sessions on different days); reduction of costs for health systems. In summary HyperArc™ system is a promising, safe and accurate solution for SRS/SFRT to treat multiple BMs in a single or few sessions. This has the potential to impact direct and indirect costs of SRS/SFRT delivery.