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Review
. 2018 May 17:12:925-934.
doi: 10.2147/OPTH.S129645. eCollection 2018.

Brachytherapy for patients with uveal melanoma: historical perspectives and future treatment directions

Beatrice Y Brewington  1 , Yusra F Shao  2 , Fredrick H Davidorf  1 , Colleen M Cebulla  1
Affiliations
Review

Brachytherapy for patients with uveal melanoma: historical perspectives and future treatment directions

Beatrice Y Brewington et al. Clin Ophthalmol. .

Abstract

Surgical management with enucleation was the primary treatment for uveal melanoma (UM) for over 100 years. The Collaborative Ocular Melanoma Study confirmed in 2001 that globe-preserving episcleral brachytherapy for UM was safe and effective, demonstrating no survival difference with enucleation. Today, brachytherapy is the most common form of radiotherapy for UM. We review the history of brachytherapy in the treatment of UM and the evolution of the procedure to incorporate fine-needle-aspiration biopsy techniques with DNA-and RNA-based genetic prognostic testing.

Keywords: UM; brachytherapy; fine-needle-aspiration biopsy; genetic prognostic testing; molecular markers; uveal melanoma.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

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