title: Radiotherapy of Choroidal Metastases in Patients with Disseminated Cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND: Choroidal metastasis is the most common ocular tumor, in most cases related to breast and lung cancer. Radiotherapy (RT) mostly is the therapy of choice. However, there is a lack of data about the results of uniformly, prospective treated patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between November 1994 and September 1997, 37 patients with 49 metastatic eyes were enrolled into the study. 25 patients (68%) had unilateral and 12 patients (32%) had bilateral metastases. 21 patients had breast cancer as primary tumor, 12 patients lung cancer, and 4 patients other tumors. 3 patients were excluded from analysis, 34 patients with 46 involved eyes were available for analysis. 29 of those patients had symptomatic metastases, 5 patients had asymptomatic choroidal metastases. RT was performed with bi- or unilateral asymmetric fields, total dose was 40 Gy with a single dose of 2 Gy, 5 fractions per week. 12 patients (35%) had a chemotherapy following RT due to diagnosis of general tumor progression. Endpoints of the study were visual acuity (VA), local tumor control, survival, and side effects. RESULTS: The median follow up was 6 months, 22 out of 34 patients died of metastatic disease. In 17 of symptomatic eyes (53%) an increase of VA and in 11 of symptomatic eyes (34%) a 'no change' was achieved. The local tumor control rate after 18 months was 83%. One patient with asymptomatic metastasis (1/14 eyes) developed symptoms until death. The median survival time was 15 months. Altogether, in 2 patients late side effects (6%) were observed (1 patients with bilateral retinopathy, 1 patient with optic nerve atrophy). CONCLUSIONS: RT with 40 Gy is highly effective in the treatment of symptomatic and asymptomatic choroidal metastases, VA was stable or improved in almost 90% of treated eyes. The rate of side effects is low. Copyright 2000 S. Karger GmbH, Freiburg
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Strahlentherapie, Universitätsklinikum Benjamin Franklin, Freie Universität Berlin.
authors.forename: D.
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bottke
authors.forename: T.
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wiegel
authors.forename: K.-M.
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Kreusel
authors.forename: N.
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bornfeld
authors.forename: G.
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schaller
authors.forename: W.
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hinkelbein