Uveal melanoma, the new guidelines on the ISS website

Produced by Aimo with Siso. It is a rare tumor with a high tendency to metastasize

ROME – published on the portal of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità the new guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of uveal melanoma produced by AIMO (Italian Association of Ophthalmologists) in collaboration with SISO (Italian Society of Ophthalmological Sciences). Among the purposes, those to indicate the correct behaviors, in line with current knowledge on the pathology, to be applied to the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of patients affected by melanoma uveal melanoma and metastatic uveal melanoma.

MAZZINI (AIMO): “OBJECTIVE TO INTRODUCE NEW RECOMMENDATIONS”

Through a review of the evidence and guidelines published in the literature, the different treatment modalities, radiotherapy and/or surgery, envisaged for uveal melanoma are compared. These modalities, which represent the standard of care, are applied according to the indications provided by available classification systems, such as AJCC. “After careful evaluation, the new guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of uveal melanoma have been published – comments doctor Cinzia Mazzini, scientific director for ocular oncology of AIMO and coordinator, together with professor Maria Antonietta Blasi, of the multidisciplinary panel that participated in the drafting of the document – The objective is to introduce new recommendations or strengthen those in use, defining what is necessary for the identification of metastases in patients with higher risk and surveillance intervals”. Finally, concludes the AIMO expert, the therapies proposed for the treatment of metastatic uveal melanoma are evaluated “in light of the availability of new immunotherapy drugs”.

UVEAL MELANOMA

Uveal melanoma is a rare disease which, with cutaneous melanoma, shares only the origin from melanocytes. It affects both genders equally, between the ages of 50 and 70. The incidence varies from <1 to >9 cases per million population per year. In Europe, the incidence shows a gradient that increases from south to north and translates into a minimum incidence of <2 cases per million in Spain and southern Italy and a maximum of >8 cases per million in Ireland, Norway and Denmark. The tumor has a high tendency to metastasize, resulting in high mortality. Metastases show an organ tropism, localizing in the liver in over 90% of cases.