Eye melanoma

Diagnosis

  • Eye examination: The outside of the eye will be examined for enlarged blood vessels, to check for tumors.
  • Eye ultrasound: is the use of high-frequency sound waves that come from a transducer to create images of the eye.
  • Angiogram: is an imaging of the blood vessels located inside and around the tumor. This procedure requires an injection of a colored dye into a vein in the arm to be distributed to the blood vessels in the eye. A special filtered camera that is used to detect the dye captures flash images.
  • Optical coherence tomography: is an imaging test that produce photos of a part of the uveal tract and retina.
  • Biopsy: A procedure done by inserting a thin needle into the eye to collect a tissue sample. The tissue sample will be sent to the laboratory to check for eye melanoma cells. 

Determining metastasis: 

  • Blood test: liver function tests
  • Chest X-ray
  • Abdominal ultrasound
  • Computerized tomography (CT) scan
  • Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan
  • Positron emission tomography (PET) scan

Treatment

The proper treatment options that will be used to treat the disease, depend on the location and size of the eye melanoma. If the condition of eye melanoma is small and not growing, immediate treatment may not be necessary. Treatment could be received, if melanoma grows or leads to complications.

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy is the implementation of powerful energy beam, such as protons or gamma rays, to kill cancer cells. When melanomas are small or medium, radiation therapy could be used to treat the disease. 

  • Brachytherapy. This is the procedure of delivering radiation to the tumor. A radioactive plaque is placed on the eye, directly on top of the tumor. The plaque is attached with temporary stitches so it stays in place for four to five days before its removal.
  • External beam radiation, or teletherapy.  

Laser treatment 

In certain cases, laser treatment can be used to kill the melanoma cells. Thermotherapy, is a form of treatment that requires an infrared laser and it can be used in combination with radiation therapy for some cases. 

Photodynamic therapy

Photodynamic therapy is the combination of medications and a special wavelength of light. The cancer cells become vulnerable to light because of the medications. Then the vessels and cells result in eye melanoma are destroyed. However, this type of therapy is effective in small melanoma and does not help to treat larger cancers.

Cryotherapy

Cryotherapy (cold treatments) is extreme cold treatment that kills melanoma cells that contain in certain small eye melanomas. Nevertheless, this treatment is not generally used.

Surgery

Operations include the removal of a part or the entire eye depending on the size and location of the eye melanoma.  

  • Surgical removal of the melanoma and a small part of healthy tissue around the melanoma could be an option to treat small melanomas.
  • Enucleation: is the surgical procedure to remove the entire eye. Typically used for large tumors developed in the eye. This treatment option is also considered when the tumor is causing pain in the eye.
    After the removal of eye melanoma, an implant will be placed in the same position to replace the eye. The muscles that are responsible for controlling eye movement will be connected to the implant so it can move. Once the healing period is over, an artificial eye or prosthesis will be placed. The front surface of the prosthetic eye will be painted to match the real existing eye of the patient.