How is Ocular Melanoma Treated?
Surgery In the past, ocular melanoma has been successfully treated with surgery, namely enucleation (removal of the entire eye). In addition to taking away vision in the eye that is removed, enucleation also results in a cosmetic defect that can seriously impact a patient’s self-esteem. Therefore, “organ-preserving” treatments have been developed to preserve not only the eye, but also potentially vision. Radiation Therapy Radiation is a major alternative to enucleation. Radiotherapy techniques include brachytherapy, stereotactic radiation (Dieckmann et al 2003), and proton radiotherapy. Other local treatments that do not involve ionizing radiation include trans-scleral local resection, transretinal resection and diode laser phototherapy. Proton radiotherapy is emerging as one of the most effective treatments of ocular melanoma, although its use has been confined to a few major centers in the world (see below). Brachytherapy One of the most commonly used treatments is brachytherapy. Thi
