Primary bilateral uveal melanoma: a population‐based study and systematic review

Abstract

Bilateral and unilateral UM patients share similar demographics, clinicopathological characteristics, treatments and prognoses. Moreover, the development of bilateral disease does not portend a poorer prognosis and patients should be treated similarly to those with unilateral disease.

Multiple Uveal Melanoma

“…In a systematic review comparing bilateral (n = 52) to unilateral uveal melanoma (n = 8,915) by Scott et al [13], the authors found no difference in overall survival between the 2 groups of patients. Scott et al [13], however, found a significant difference between the treatment methods chosen for the first and second affected eyes in bilateral melanoma. The first eye was more likely to be enucleated, while the second was more likely to be treated in a globe-sparing fashion.…”

“…There is no evidence to suggest that bilateral disease portends an increased metastasis risk, the individual tumor profile notwithstanding. In a systematic review comparing bilateral ( n = 52) to unilateral uveal melanoma ( n = 8,915) by Scott et al [13], the authors found no difference in overall survival between the 2 groups of patients.…”

“…The incidence of uveal melanoma in the USA has been estimated to be 5.1-5.2 per million [1][2][3]. Having a diagnosis of uveal melanoma more than once in a lifetime is expected to be exceedingly rare but has been reported either as bilateral melanoma [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], unilateral multiple/ multifocal melanoma [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], or melanoma with metastasis to the ipsilateral [21,23] or contralateral [24][25][26][27][28] eye. In this chart review, our aim is to identify any such cases among patients who have been diagnosed and treated for uveal melanoma at the Duke University Eye Center (DUEC) Ophthalmic Oncology Center.…”

Bilateral uveal melanoma: hunting for the source

“…In this report by Scott et al ., a population‐based study and systematic review was performed using three sources: a pathology database from 1996 to 2016; the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End‐Results (SEER)‐18 from 1973 to 2103; and published English literature, resulting in a total of 52 cases of bilateral uveal melanoma . Genetic testing was not a part of this analysis.…”

“…They found that survival did not differ between patients with unilateral versus bilateral uveal melanoma; however, they acknowledged that the number of bilateral cases were few. These authors astutely speculated that the observation of ‘uveal melanoma occurring in a paired organ suggests a genetic predisposition’ to developing this malignancy …”