title: The costs of hyperfractionation: an economic analysis incorporating consideration of waiting time for treatment.
abstract: Multiple fractions per day are being used increasingly in clinical radiotherapy. There are sound radiobiological reasons for this, but the approach uses more time on treatment machines than conventional radiotherapy. The effect of using hyperfractionated schedules for a small minority of radically treated patients has been assessed using a previously published model. The analysis shows that profitability is severely affected by pure hyperfractionation, and that a schedule with a 2-week gap could, by increasing the number of patients it would be possible to treat palliatively, actually increase profitability. Waiting times for treatment could increase, sometimes to clinically unacceptable levels, for patients in all categories.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Munro
mesh_terms: D002985:Clinical Protocols; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000191:economics*; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D013997:Time Factors