Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the effect of topical interferon α-2b therapy on conjunctival melanoma (CM) and primary acquired melanosis (PAM) and study the morphologic changes after topical interferon α-2b treatment.
Methods :
Eight patients with biopsy-proven CM and/or PAM were treated with topical Interferon α-2b following excision and cryotherapy. One drop of interferon α-2b (1 M units/ml/tid) was repeated in 3-month cycles. Light microscopic (LM) and electron microscopic (EM) examinations were done after 3 months of topical interferon treatment in one case.
Results :
Four eyes showed significant pigmentation loss within one cycle of treatment. Two patients required a second cycle of treatment and two patients needed a second surgery/cryotherapy. LM and EM studies showed a decrease in the number of melanocytes and melanin production and clustering of pigment laden phagocytes around subconjunctival blood vessels.
Conclusions :
Topical interferon α-2b is an effective and complication-free agent for the adjuvant treatment of melanocytic conjunctival lesions. The LM and EM studies were not useful towards the understanding of interferon α-2b's mechanism of action on proliferating melanocytes.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.