Stereotactic Arrhythmia Radioablation (STAR) for refractory ventricular tachycardia (VT) - A preliminary report from the German multicenter RAVENTA study

FUNDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – EU funding. Main funding source(s): The multicenter RAdiosurgery for VENtricular TAchycardia (RAVENTA) study (NCT03867747) is part of the STOPSTORM.eu consortium project BACKGROUND: Stereotactic Arrhythmia Radioablation (STAR) has been shown to be a promising treatment option for refractory ventricular tachycardia (VT) in initial reports of monocentric clinical studies and case series. METHODOLOGY: The multicenter RAdiosurgery for VENtricular TAchycardia (RAVENTA) study is part of the STOPSTORM.eu consortium project and investigates STAR with 25 Gy in one session for patients with refractory VT without further treatment options. The primary endpoint is to evaluate the feasibility and safety of the procedure with an incidence of ≤ 5% of severe (grade ≥ 3) treatment-related side effects within 30 days after therapy. We now present an analysis after enrolment of 10 of the 20 planned patients. RESULTS: Ten patients were included in the RAVENTA study at four treatment centers between 10/2019 and 10/2022. STAR was performed without complications in all patients. To date, there were no acute (≤ 30 days) or late (> 30 days up to one year) grade ≥ 3 side effects which were possibly treatment-associated. Significant reduction in VT burden and ICD interventions was observed in most patients. In 7/10 (70%) of the patients, sustained freedom from VT was achieved up until last follow-up. CONCLUSION: RAVENTA is the world's first multicenter study for STAR of refractory VT. We did not observe any treatment-related severe side effects in the current analysis. Most patients benefited from significant reductions in VT burden. [Figure: see text]