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Primary transpupillary thermotherapy for small suspicious choroidal nevi
Author(s) -
TURCOTTE S,
BERGERON D,
ROUSSEAU A,
MOURIAUX F
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2012.3285.x
Subject(s) - medicine , melanoma , choroidal melanoma , retrospective cohort study , surgery , cancer research
Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess the ocular and systemic outcomes of patients treated by transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT) for suspicious choroidal nevi at our oncology centre. Methods A retrospective chart review was conducted for all patients with a newly diagnosed small suspicious choroidal nevus treated by TTT at our oncology centre from the date of acquisition of the laser (2002) to September 2011. Standard treatment consisted of three TTT sessions. Patients with two or more risk factors for tumour growth were systematically treated. Ocular and systemic outcomes were reviewed and compared with those of similar patients that were observed between 1990 and 2008. Results Our preliminary data include 8 patients treated by TTT and 56 patients that were followed‐up without treatment. Of the treated patients, 3 (37.5%) showed progression with a mean time to recurrence of 13 months. Of the observed patients, 23 (41%) showed progression with a mean time to recurrence of 41 months. There were no reported deaths in the treated group, and 3 (5.4%) deaths due to metastatic melanoma in the observation group. Conclusion Despite careful patient selection, primary TTT for small suspicious choroidal nevi showed poor local tumour control. No deaths due to metastatic melanoma were reported in the follow‐up of treated patients, and mortality remained low in the observation group.