Quantitation of Tumor Seeding From Fine Needle Aspiration of Ocular Melanomas

Extraocular Extension of Uveal Melanoma After Fine-Needle Aspiration, Vitrectomy, and Open Biopsy

“…6,7 Aside from these controversies, some clinicians have expressed concern for orbital recurrence of melanoma, potentially as a result of improperly performed procedures. While orbital recurrence is a welldocumented complication of biopsies in eyes harboring retinoblastoma, 8 there is only 1 recent report in the Englishlanguage literature of extraocular extension of choroidal melanoma following needle biopsy. 9 In that case, a patient developed an orbital recurrence of melanoma after a 25-gauge pars plana biopsy that was performed after an infusion was placed.…”

“…9 One study has been performed in which enucleated globes with uveal melanoma were subjected to FNABs and the needle track was subsequently examined histopathologically. 8 Glasgow et al 8 performed 22 biopsies with a 30-gauge needle. Approximately half of the needle tracks in these studies did demonstrate viable tumor cells on sectioning.…”

Fine needle aspiration biopsy in selecting treatment for inconclusive intraocular disease

“…Foulds (1992) stated that difficulties related to the transvitreal procedure were not encountered when the biopsy was restricted to choroidal tissue. The risk involved in the direct route is based upon the findings of seeding tumour cells into the orbit (Jensen & Andersen 1959) and sheets and numerous single malignant cells in the tract (Glasgow et al 1988). However, tumour implantation with metastases has not been reported with needles that are 25 gauge or smaller (Char & Miller 1995).…”

Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy with Adjunct Immunohistochemistry in Intraocular Tumor Management

“…[1][2][3] Although the technique of fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) was initially described > 100 years earlier, its first reported application to the cytopathologic analysis of solid intraocular tumors was by Jakobiec in 1979. 4,5 Despite initial concerns that FNAB could result in tumor seeding along the needle track 6,7 or produce major vision-threatening complications, it has proven to be a generally safe and reliable means of obtaining a tissue diagnosis. 4,[8][9][10][11][12] It has become an established diagnostic method for the evaluation of a variety of neoplastic and nonneoplastic intraocular lesions.…”