# Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT)

Source: https://onco.cc/technologies/litt/  
OnCo record `litt` (Technology). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Laser interstitial thermal therapy guides a laser fibre through a small skull hole, monitored by real-time MRI, to heat and destroy deep brain tumours a surgeon could not safely reach.

## Summary

MRI thermometry-guided ablation (NeuroBlate, Visualase) for deep-seated or recurrent gliomas, radiation necrosis, and brain metastases. Case series suggest survival comparable to resection for selected recurrent glioblastoma; may transiently open the blood-brain barrier, enabling drug delivery (LAANTERN registry, phase 2 combinations with immunotherapy). No randomised evidence yet.

## Fields

- Kind: Technology
- Status: established
- Last checked: 2026-09-06
- Principle: Stereotactically placed laser fibre delivers thermal energy; MR thermometry maps the ablation zone in real time.
- Strengths: Minimally invasive access to deep lesions; Short hospital stay; Possible BBB disruption for adjuvant drugs
- Limitations: Lesion size limit (~3 cm); Oedema after ablation; No randomised trials

## Sources

- Kamath et al., Glioblastoma treated with MRI-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy: safety, efficacy and outcomes (Neurosurgery 2018): https://doi.org/10.1093/neuros/nyy375

## Connected records

- cancers: [Glioma & glioblastoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/glioblastoma/)
- fronts: [Surgery & Interventional](https://onco.cc/fronts/surgery/)
- technologies: [Intraoperative MRI and CT](https://onco.cc/technologies/intraoperative-mri-ct/), [Laser interstitial thermal therapy systems (NeuroBlate, Visualase)](https://onco.cc/technologies/litt-systems/), [MRI](https://onco.cc/technologies/mri/), [Thermal ablation (RFA, microwave, cryo)](https://onco.cc/technologies/thermal-ablation/)
- terms: [Blood-brain barrier (BBB)](https://onco.cc/terms/blood-brain-barrier/)
- key papers: [Glioblastoma Treated With Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Guided Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy: Safety, Efficacy, and Outcomes](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-kamath-neurosurgery/)
- bottlenecks: [The brain: barrier and sanctuary](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-brain-delivery/)
- ideas: [Robot-placed catheters and live imaging for drug infusion into brain tumours](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-bio2-robotic-convection-delivery/)
- pathways: [The blood-brain barrier & brain metastasis](https://onco.cc/pathways/blood-brain-barrier-metastasis/)
- roadmaps: [Devices and physical therapies roadmap: heat and light → electric fields and focused sound → drug-releasing implants](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/devices-roadmap/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/litt.json