Multicenter prospective study of laser interstitial thermal therapy for brain tumors

Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) is a surgical tool used to ablate brain tumors, radiation necrosis, and epileptic foci. The LAANTERN prospective registry contains data of patients undergoing LITT at 25 US centers. Analysis of 787 patients between 2015 and 2023 has now been published. Of these, 445 had primary brain tumors and 342 had brain metastases. The median age was 59.6 years and the median pediatric age (n=18) was 15 years. The median length of hospital stay was 32.4 hours, and 62.6% avoided intensive care unit admission. The adverse event rate was 12.8%, with 65.5% of events considered transient. Mortality rate was 0.25%. Anticonvulsants were stopped in 30-40% of patients, and 80% of patients stopped steroids after LITT. Quality of life remained stable up to 3 years post-LITT. Greater extent of ablation and smaller lesion size were associated with significant improvements in survival outcomes in patients with high-grade glioma and recurrent metastases. The authors conclude that these data support consideration of LITT as a cytoreductive tool for patients with primary and metastatic brain tumors.