Proton irradiation of malignant melanoma of the ciliary body

Abstract

This is the authors' first case of malignant melanoma of the ciliary body treated with proton beam irradiation, a technique that the authors developed for irradiating choroidal melanomas. After 21 months of follow-up no growth of the tumor has been observed, and shrinkage of the tumor was noted on the follow-up photographs and by ultrasonography. The 32P uptake test, which was positive before treatment, turned negative 14 months after irradiation. The described technique of proton beam irradiation might offer an alternative for the treatment of ciliary body melanomas when the present techniques of iridocyclectomy cannot be applied because of the size of the lesion.