Is it enucleation or organ-sparing techniques for choroid melanoma treatment?

Choroid melanoma belongs to malignant tumors. The choice of treatment modality depends on a tumor size and site, ocular tunics conditions, clinic logistics, and the patient’s will. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment of patients with choroid melanoma. The data of the Belarusian Cancer Registry and the case histories of patients with choroid melanoma (C69.3, ICD-10) over the period of 1999–2018 were studied. The incidence rates were evaluated on the basis of the analysis of the absolute number of persons taken ill with the disease, crude intensive rates calculated per 1,000,000 of population. To calculate the survival, the disease-specific cumulative 5-year survival rate was used. Significance evaluation was made applying the chisquare test. The incidence rates varied over the 20-year period and were 0.9  ‰ on the average. Enucleation was performed in 724 patients, 13.9 % (101 patients) being registered with synchronous and metachronous cancer. Patients with a sole tumor of choroid melanoma were analyzed. The amount of enucleations performed decreased by a factor of 1.8. To evaluate the survival, the groups of patients with large tumors were formed after enucleation and combination treatment was carried out. Of 623 patients subjected to enucleation, disease progression was established in 159 (25.5 %). Of 159 patients, the onset of disease progression occurred in 25 (15.7 %) in the 1st year, in 50 (31.5 %) in the 2nd year, and in 84 (52.8 %) in the 4th year and later. In the combination treatment group, consisting of 58 patients, decease progression was ascertained in 10 (17.2 %): in the 1st year – in 1 (10.0 %), in the 2nd year – in 6 (60.0 %), and in the 4th and later – in 3 (30.0 %). The survival rate after the organ-sparing treatment is insignificantly higher and increases to the 5th year of the follow-up, although the data are statistically insignificant (p > 0.5). At present, enucleation does not play the leading role in the choice of treatment modality for patients with clinical diagnosis of choroid melanoma. The disease-specific cumulative 5-year survival rate in patients receiving organ-sparing treatment was 85.7 ± 5.1 %, and in those subjected to enucleation – 67.2 ± 2.2 %, the data being statistically insignificant (p  >  0.5). The promising trend in treating choroid melanoma patients is the development of organ-sparing treatment techniques.

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