Abstract
Purpose: :
To compare tumor control and survival of choroidal melanomas treated with Ruthenium brachytherapy (Ru) versus stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT).
Methods: :
All choroidal melanomas treated at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the Erasmus University Medical Center (EMC) between January 2000 and December 2007 with a tumor prominence between 2 and 8 mm were analyzed. Primary endpoints were survival and secondary enucleation. To achieve comparability of patients treated in different centers, all records were abstracted uniformly, making it impossible to identify patients and original treatment center. Ophthalmologists of both clinics assessed the abstracted records to indicate their treatment preference. Patients for whom a different preference was expressed (e.g., one ophthalmologist selecting Ru, the other SRT), were taken to be prognostically interchangeable. Their original treatment will be used for a comparison of outcomes.
Results: :
Our preliminary data consisted of all patients treated with Ru (372 patients) and SRT (68 patients). For the Ru cases, median tumor basal diameter was 10.9 mm and median tumor thickness was 3.5 mm. For the SRT cases, median diameter was 11.1 mm, median thickness was 4.8 mm. The 5-year survival was 78.4% and 76.7% for patients treated with Ru and SRT, respectively (p=0.552, Log Rank test). The 5-year enucleation-free survival was 87.0% for the Ru group and 86.4% for SRT group (p=0.954, Log Rank test).
Conclusions: :
In the overall group, no significant difference was found in survival or secondary enucleation rate between Ru and SRT treatments. The results on the interchangeable abstracted records will follow.
Keywords: melanoma • radiation therapy • choroid