Objective: To study the efficacy of LITT for BM patients experiencing in-field recurrence following SRS.
Methods: A literature search was conducted to identify studies investigating local control (LC) rate and overall survival (OS) of LITT for BMs with IFR following SRS.
Results: Analysis included 14 studies (470 patients with 542 lesions). The 6-month (LC-6) and 12-month (LC-12) local control rates were 78.5% (95% CI: 70.6-84.8%) and 69.0% (95% CI: 60.0-76.7%) separately. Pooled median OS was 17.15 months (95% CI: 13.27-24.8). The overall OS-6 and OS-12 rates were 76.0% (95% CI: 71.4-80.0%) and 63.4% (95% CI: 52.9-72.7%) separately. LITT provided more favorable local control efficacy in RN than BM recurrence (LC-6: 87.4% vs. 67.9%, p = 0.009; LC-12: 76.3% vs. 59.9%, p = 0.041).
Conclusions: LITT is an effective treatment for BM patients experiencing IFR following SRS. For different pathological entities, LITT showed more satisfactory local control efficacy on RN than BM recurrence.
Keywords: Brain metastases; LITT; SRS; efficacy; in-field recurrence; radiation necrosis.