{"title":"Cingulotomy for Cancer Pain.","authors":"Valentina Lind, Harith Akram","doi":"10.1159/000548804","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Stereotactic anterior cingulotomy is a neurosurgical technique that can offer significant pain relief in patients with refractory cancer pain, particularly in the palliative setting. Despite being described in the 1960s, its use has recently resurged due to limitations of pharmacologic and neuromodulatory therapies in terminally ill patients. The anterior cingulate cortex plays a crucial role in the affective processing of pain, and its disruption through targeted lesioning may reduce suffering without eliminating nociception. This review summarises the historical background, patient selection criteria, surgical approaches, efficacy data, and safety outcomes associated with bilateral anterior cingulotomy for cancer-related pain. Additionally, the Queen Square approach, incorporating MRI-guided targeting and diffusion imaging, is described. Available data support the procedure's short-term efficacy in the majority of patients, with limited cognitive side effects and minimal morbidity. Future directions include network-based targeting, refinement of lesion techniques, and consideration of non-invasive alternatives such as focused ultrasound. Further research is warranted to optimise selection criteria and understand the neural mechanisms underlying pain relief.</p>","PeriodicalId":22078,"journal":{"name":"Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery","volume":" ","pages":"1-20"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000548804","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"NEUROIMAGING","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Stereotactic anterior cingulotomy is a neurosurgical technique that can offer significant pain relief in patients with refractory cancer pain, particularly in the palliative setting. Despite being described in the 1960s, its use has recently resurged due to limitations of pharmacologic and neuromodulatory therapies in terminally ill patients. The anterior cingulate cortex plays a crucial role in the affective processing of pain, and its disruption through targeted lesioning may reduce suffering without eliminating nociception. This review summarises the historical background, patient selection criteria, surgical approaches, efficacy data, and safety outcomes associated with bilateral anterior cingulotomy for cancer-related pain. Additionally, the Queen Square approach, incorporating MRI-guided targeting and diffusion imaging, is described. Available data support the procedure's short-term efficacy in the majority of patients, with limited cognitive side effects and minimal morbidity. Future directions include network-based targeting, refinement of lesion techniques, and consideration of non-invasive alternatives such as focused ultrasound. Further research is warranted to optimise selection criteria and understand the neural mechanisms underlying pain relief.
期刊介绍:
''Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery'' provides a single source for the reader to keep abreast of developments in the most rapidly advancing subspecialty within neurosurgery. Technological advances in computer-assisted surgery, robotics, imaging and neurophysiology are being applied to clinical problems with ever-increasing rapidity in stereotaxis more than any other field, providing opportunities for new approaches to surgical and radiotherapeutic management of diseases of the brain, spinal cord, and spine. Issues feature advances in the use of deep-brain stimulation, imaging-guided techniques in stereotactic biopsy and craniotomy, stereotactic radiosurgery, and stereotactically implanted and guided radiotherapeutics and biologicals in the treatment of functional and movement disorders, brain tumors, and other diseases of the brain. Background information from basic science laboratories related to such clinical advances provides the reader with an overall perspective of this field. Proceedings and abstracts from many of the key international meetings furnish an overview of this specialty available nowhere else. ''Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery'' meets the information needs of both investigators and clinicians in this rapidly advancing field.