Abstract
Purpose :
Retinoblastoma is responsive to radiation treatments. External beam radiotherapy (EBRT) bears extensive complications, especially when performed unilaterally, more so under 1 year of age. The aim of this study is to describe the use of brachytherapy for retinoblastoma with its strengths and weaknesses.
Methods :
We examined a cohort of retinoblastoma patients who underwent brachytherapy with a Ru-106 plaque as a primary treatment in unilateral unifocal tumors. The planned apical dose was 50Gy. IRB approval was obtained to review patient information.
Results :
Over the past eight years, 13 children (6 girls) were treated with primary brachytherapy for an isolated retinal tumor. The mean age of diagnosis was 16.6 months (range 3-63 months, median 11 months, but only four children were diagnosed over one year of age). Eight eyes had group B tumors, 4 had group C tumors, and 1 had a group D tumor. The tumor was located in the macula in half the cases. All the tumors responded to treatment without local recurrence. No complications were noted. In the youngest child, additional tumors emerged in both eyes months after the brachytherapy. An RB1 mutation was detected in 3/7 cases were mutation analysis was completed.
Conclusions :
Ru-106 brachytherapy is an effective primary treatment for monofocal retinoblastoma even for larger tumors and helps to avoid enucleations or EBRT in unilateral cases.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.