Survival in metastatic ocular melanoma

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Abstract
Of 35 patients with metastatic ocular melanoma, 71.4% manifested liver involvement either initially (45.7%) or later in the course of the disease (25.7%). With liver involvement, the median survival was 2.2 months, whereas with pulmonary involvement it was 19.2 months after the first evidence of metastatic disease (P < 0.01). Survival after recurrence varied also with age, those younger than 50 years having median survival of 14 months, with those 50 years or older having median survival 3.5 months (P < 0.01). It also varied with the patient's sex, males having median survival 3 months after recurrence, and females 10.4 months (P < 0.05). Younger patients and females had also longer disease-free intervals prior to recurrence. Surgical removal of metastases, when feasible, in combination with chemotherapy, seems to offer improved palliation, since a subsequent median survival thus of 18.4 months was observed with 3/15 patients alive disease-free 1 to 3 years later, while the median survival of 20 patients not treated with surgery was 2.5 months. Most of this difference in survival, however, is due to a difference in tumor load between the two groups, with patients subjected to surgery having lesser amounts of tumor and/or more favorable sites. Cancer 52:334-336, 1983.