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Pre-enucleation radiation offered no survival advantage for choroidal melanoma patients
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No survival advantage can be attributed to pre-enucleation radiation of choroidal melanoma, a long-term study has confirmed.
Members of the Collaborative Ocular Melanoma Study group studied the rates of death and related outcomes in 1,003 patients over a 10-year period after treatment for large choroidal melanoma. The study group also investigated prognostic factors and treatment effectiveness.
The group compared rates of survival in patients who received pre-enucleation radiation and enucleation alone; after 10 years, 576 patients had died.
The 10-year rates of death with histologically confirmed metastasis of melanoma was 45% in patients with pre-enucleation radiation and 40% in patients with enucleation alone.
An older age and larger maximum basal tumor diameter were the primary predictors of time to death from all causes and death with melanoma metastasis. Of the 448 patients, 145 were alive and clinically cancer-free 10 years after treatment.
The study is published in the January issue of American Journal of Ophthalmology.