Clues to improve the cost-effectiveness of radiotherapy for brain metastases from non-small cell lung cancer: cost reduction, patient selection, and better understanding of neurocognitive deterioration

In September 2018, Girard et al. published the article ‘Extra cost of brain metastases (BM) in patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): A French national hospital database analysis’ (1). They extracted the data of 2,500 metastatic NSCLC patients from the national medical information database and divided the patients into two groups: those with metastases other than brain (n=1,529), and those with BMs (n=971). The study’s analyses revealed that the presence of BM at diagnosis contributed to the excessive medical cost of €553 per patient-month, and Girard et al. stated that radiotherapy (RT) and palliative care are the principal components of the increased cost.