LAANTERN Links LITT Ablation Extent to Survival

Greater extent of ablation was associated with longer survival in selected glioblastoma and recurrent brain metastasis cohorts in a prospective registry analysis of 787 patients undergoing laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT). The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The LAANTERN registry included 445 patients with primary tumors and 342 with metastatic tumors. Participants were treated with the NeuroBlate System at 25 US centers from 2015 through 2023. Investigators prospectively collected demographic, procedural, adverse-event, survival, and quality-of-life data, with follow-up planned for up to 5 years.

Among patients with newly diagnosed grade 4 glioblastoma, median progression-free survival was 1.32 years with at least 91% ablation and 0.24 years with 90% or less ablation (P<.0001). Median overall survival was 2.1 versus 0.36 years, respectively (P<.0001). Among patients with recurrent brain metastases, 100% ablation was associated with median post-LITT overall survival of 2.8 years, compared with 1.3 years for ablation of 99% or less (P=.03).

The median hospital stay was 32.4 hours, and 62.6% of patients avoided intensive care unit admission. Adverse events occurred in 12.8% of patients, with 65.5% of events considered transient. The reported mortality rate was 0.25%, and quality of life remained stable for up to 3 years after LITT.

The authors noted that interpretation was limited by the absence of a control arm, potential selection bias, practice heterogeneity, institution-level variation in determining recurrence, incomplete molecular data, and declining follow-up completion. Fewer than half of participants completed 1-year follow-up, and 1%-2% completed 5-year visits.

Source: Leuthardt EC, Chiang V, Hadjipanayis CG, et al. Laser interstitial thermal therapy for brain tumors: a prospective multicenter analysis of patients from the LAANTERN study. J Clin Oncol. Published online August 17, 2026. doi:10.1200/JCO-25-02604