Clinical and histomorphological characteristics of medium and large-sized uveal melanoma stages T1–3 after failure of organ-preserving treatment
PDF

Keywords

ophthalmology
retina
histological examination
choroid
ionizing radiation
choroidal melanoma

How to Cite

DrumіD., Polyakova, S., Artyomov, O., Lytvynenko, M., Vinner, N., Chebotarova, S., Yavorsky, B., & Larson, L. (2025). Clinical and histomorphological characteristics of medium and large-sized uveal melanoma stages T1–3 after failure of organ-preserving treatment . Experimental and Clinical Medicine, 94(3). https://doi.org/10.35339/ekm.2025.94.3.dpa

Abstract

In press

Background. To assess the effectiveness of the developed combined method of Transpupillary ThermoTherapy (TTT) and Strontium-90/Yttrium-90 Brachytherapy (BT) for Uveal Melanoma (UM), it is advisable to know the features of therapeutic pathomorphosis in tumor tissue.

Aim. To evaluate the effectiveness of the Institute's treatment method for uveal melanoma based on the study of the histomorphological features of therapeutic pathomorphosis.

Materials and Methods. Fifteen enucleated eyes with continued growth of medium and large-sized UMs of stage T1–3 were studied, after the combined action of TTT and BT Sr-90/Y-90 according to the developed methodology, which was carried out at the State Institution "The Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of NAMS of Ukraine". The studied objects (eyeballs) were fixed in 10% neutral formalin solution, embedded in paraffin and histological sections [10–12] μm thick were made, which were stained with Harris hematoxylin and eosin and studied on a Jenamed-2 light microscope at objective magnification from 4× to 40× and eyepiece magnification of 10× followed by photoregistration with a digital video camera and assessment of therapeutic pathomorphosis. The study was conducted as part of the topic with state registration number 01224U00149.

Research Ethics. The study was conducted without human participation and did not require approval by the ethics committee.

Results. The removed melanomas were mainly mixed cell - 14 (93.3%) out of 15, one was epithelioid cell. Among mixed cell melanomas with a predominance of spindle cells, there were 3 (21.4%), epithelioid cells – 4 (28.6%). Tumors had pigmentation of varying degrees in 13 cases (86.7%), in 2 cases (13.3%) the melanoma was amelanotic. Invasion to the episclera was established in 6 cases (40.0%), the formation of an extrabulbar node – in 4 (26.7%), while the extrabulbar node was not clinically detected in 2 cases. Among the 15 melanomas studied, grade I therapeutic pathomorphosis was detected in 2, the II degree – in 3, the II–III degree – in 8 melanomas, in 2 cases there were no manifestations of pathomorphosis.

Conclusions. Therapeutic pathomorphosis after combined TTT and Sr-90/Y-90 brachytherapy was observed in 13 of 15 cases. The treatment method itself is not the primary cause of treatment failure; comparison with successfully treated cases is not feasible due to the absence of enucleation material. This study defines the limitations of the method rather than questioning its overall effectiveness.

Keywords: ophthalmology, retina, histological examination, choroid, ionizing radiation, choroidal melanoma.

https://doi.org/10.35339/ekm.2025.94.3.dpa
PDF

References

Fattahi S, Deufel CL, Astafurov KV, Olsen TW, Stafford SL, Neben Wittich MA, et al. Low dose iodine-125 brachytherapy and transpupillary thermal therapy for small- to medium-sized choroidal melanoma. Brachytherapy. 2026;25(2):386-95. DOI: 10.1016/j.brachy.2025.11.011. PMID: 41407569.

O'Day RFJ, Roelofs KA, Negretti GS, McCombe MF, Thompson K, Moncur J, Corsini L, McNab A, Howard N, Ghassemi F, Valenzuela AA. Long-term visual outcomes after ruthenium plaque brachytherapy for posterior choroidal melanoma. Eye (Lond). 2023;37(5):959-65. DOI: 10.1038/s41433-022-01944-4. PMID: 35140328.

Shah PN, Shanmugam M, Kagathi NM, Thaliath AT, Mohan S. Survival outcomes and prognosis predictors of uveal melanoma from Indian population. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2025;73(8):1138-45. DOI: 10.4103/IJO.IJO_350_25. PMID: 40719715.

Maheshwari A, Finger PT. A 12-Year Study of Slotted Palladium-103 Plaque Radiation Therapy for Choroidal Melanoma: Near, Touching, or Surrounding the Optic Nerve. Am J Ophthalmol. 2018;188:60-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajo.2018.01.025. PMID: 29409899.

Bai H, Bosch JJ, Heindl LM. Current management of uveal melanoma: A review. Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2023;51(5):484-94. DOI: 10.1111/ceo.14214. PMID: 37076276.

Gallo B, Hussain R, Al-Jamal RT, Khalid H, Stoker I, Hay G, et al. Long-term visual outcomes and side effects of ruthenium-106 brachytherapy in small choroidal melanoma. Br J Ophthalmol. 2025;109(7):809-15. DOI: 10.1136/bjo-2023-324686. PMID: 39880671.

Murtagh P, Frentzas S, Tey A, Ribeiro C, Lubowiecki M, Lee R, et al. Tumour control, eye retention and visual acuity after radiotherapy for choroidal melanoma. BMJ Open Ophthalmol. 2026;11(1):e001944. DOI: 10.1136/bmjophth-2025-001944. PMID: 41500613.

Meidenbauer K, Richards Z, Yupari RJ, Bena JF, Wilkinson A, Suh J, Singh AD. Outcomes for posterior uveal melanoma: Validation of American Brachytherapy Society Guidelines. Brachytherapy. 2021;20(6):1226-34. DOI: 10.1016/j.brachy.2021.05.165. PMID: 34305017.

Weinberger Y, Hu J, Patel SN, Levi K, Singh AD. Uveal Melanoma: 5-Year Update on Incidence, Treatment, and Survival (SEER 1975–2020). Ocul Oncol Pathol. 2025;11(1):30-6. DOI: 10.1159/000543151. PMID: 40225965.

Rao YJ, Sein J, Badiyan S, Schwarz JK, DeWees T, Grigsby P, Rao PK. Patterns of care and survival outcomes after treatment for uveal melanoma in the post-coms era (2004–2013): a surveillance, epidemiology, and end results analysis. J Contemp Brachytherapy. 2017;9(5):453-65. DOI: 10.5114/jcb.2017.70986. PMID: 29204166.

Kornblau I, Hopkins NS, King BA, Wiles A, Izaguirre E, Liu-Smith F, Wilson M. Characteristics and Outcomes of 237 Juxtapapillary Choroidal Melanomas Treated with Iodine-125 Plaque Brachytherapy. Ocul Oncol Pathol. 2025;11(1):46-55. DOI: 10.1159/000543521. PMID: 40225970.

Smidt-Nielsen I, Bagger M, Heegaard S, Andersen KK, Kiilgaard JF. Posterior uveal melanoma incidence and survival by AJCC tumour size in a 70-year nationwide cohort. Acta Ophthalmol. 2021;99(8):e1474-82. DOI: 10.1111/aos.14847. PMID: 33738986.

Ma ST, Hsieh YT, Wei YH, Liao SL. A 45-year experience of uveal melanoma in Taiwan: Verification of American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system and prognostic factors. J Formos Med Assoc. 2021;120(6):1361-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.jfma.2020.10.016. PMID: 33127270.

Gallo B, Hussain R, Al-Jamal RT, Khalid H, Stoker I, Hay G, Heimann H, Damato B. Local tumour control and patient survival after ruthenium-106 brachytherapy for small choroidal melanoma. Br J Ophthalmol. 2025;109(1):76-82. DOI: 10.1136/bjo-2023-324687. PMID: 38964829.

Semeniuk O, Yu E, Rivard MJ. Current and Emerging Radiotherapy Options for Uveal Melanoma. Cancers (Basel). 2024;16(5):1074. DOI: 10.3390/cancers16051074. PMID: 38473430.

Vit VV, Molchaniuk NI, Poliakova SI, Tsukanova IV. Ultrastructural features of choroidal melanomas after 810-nm diode-laser transpupillary thermotherapy delivered using the developed methodology. Archive of Ophthalmology of Ukraine. 2025;(6):56-62. DOI: 10.31288/oftalmolzh201965662. [In Ukrainian].

Vit VV, Polyakova SI, Tsukanova IV. Histomorphological changes in choroidal melanoma after transpupillary thermotherapy according to the developed method (unsuccessful cases). Archive of Ophthalmology of Ukraine. 2020;8(2):15-20. DOI: 10.22141/2309-8147.8.2.2020.209915. [In Ukrainian].

Pasyechnikova NV (author, owner). Certificate of Ukraine on registration of copyright for work No.135100 of 15 Apr 2025. Method of treating patients with choroidal melanoma of stages T2–T3 by combining the action of transpupillary thermotherapy according to the developed method and brachytherapy with strontium-90/yttrium-90. Kyiv: State Organization "Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations". Available at: https://sis.nipo.gov.ua/uk/search/detail/1858814 [accessed 30 May 2025]. Published: Bulletin "Copyright and Related Rights" No.89 of 30 May 2025. P. 326. [In Ukrainian].

Avery RB, Diener-West M, Reynolds SM, Grossniklaus HE, Green WR, Albert DM. Histopathologic characteristics of choroidal melanoma in eyes enucleated after iodine 125 brachytherapy in the collaborative ocular melanoma study. Arch Ophthalmol. 2008;126(2):207-12. DOI: 10.1001/archophthalmol.2007.50. PMID:18268211.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.