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Radiotherapy has little effect on Graves’ disease
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ROCHESTER, Minn. — Patients with mild to moderate ophthalmopathy do not benefit from radiotherapy, according to a study. A 3-year noncomparative interventional case series evaluating the treatment yielded limited evidence to support any significant clinical improvement, researchers here at the Mayo Clinic said.
Forty-two patients were treated with orbital radiotherapy within 6 months of entering the study. Twelve months after study entry, about half of the patients chose to undergo surgery on their eyes or orbits. Only a slight improvement was seen in patients who did not undergo decompression. Following orbital decompression, volumes of muscle and fat increased, but bony orbital volume increased more and proptosis diminished.
The authors said the limited improvement seen may have been the result of treatment or of natural remission. “In either case, the changes are of little clinical significance. Because it is neither effective nor innocuous, radiotherapy does not seem to be indicated for treatment of mild to moderate ophthalmopathy,” they conclude in the November issue of Ophthalmology.