Treating Small Choroidal Melanoma

Over the last several decades, ocular oncologists have set a goal to identify and treat smaller uveal melanomas. Another way to rephrase this goal would be to state that we want to identify melanocytic lesions that are likely to spread at some future time and ablate them before they do so. Ocular oncologists are very accurate in diagnosing medium and large uveal melanomas. Differentiation of small melanomas from high-risk choroidal nevi has been more challenging. Approximately 8% of people in the United States have a choroidal nevus. The malignant transformation rate is estimated at about 1 in 9000 per year. This translates into about 2400 new cases of uveal melanoma each year in the United States, and the incidence seems to be increasing. Only about 30% of these lesions are diagnosed while they are small melanomas.
Source: JAMA Ophthalmology - Category: Opthalmology Source Type: research