Genetic Testing Leads to Improved Care for Eye Cancer Patients at UCH
AURORA, Colo (May 1, 2009) Two words – cytogenetic analysis – are redefining the way patients with melanoma of the eye are being treated at University of Colorado Hospital.
The front entrance of the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute
(RMLEI) at University of Colorado Hospital.
Eye cancer specialist Scott Oliver, MD, performed the hospital's first three plaque brachytherapy treatments combined with cytogenetic analysis of mutations in the tumor. The analysis determines the risk of the cancer's spread, and allows doctors to provide more comprehensive treatment to patients after the eye cancer is treated.
"Having this genetic information takes treatment to the next level and patients will truly receive comprehensive care in an effort to save their sight," said Oliver, an ophthalmic oncologist. "We in the medical community are just beginning to understand the implications of genetics with respect to eye cancer care."
Oliver recently joined the University of Colorado Denver's School of Medicine's Department of Ophthalmology and sees patients at the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute at the University of Colorado Hospital. Those with eye cancer receive care from a multidisciplinary team of specialists at the Eye Institute and the University of Colorado Cancer Center. Oliver is the first ophthalmologist specializing in eye cancer to join the medical team and is uniquely trained to bring this approach of obtaining genetic material from melanoma of the eye.
About plaque brachytherapy
In plaque brachytherapy, radioactive seeds the size of rice are placed in gold bottle cap-like bowls, which are then surgically implanted behind the eye. The patient wears these for seven days and then the plaques are removed. A lead shield placed over the eye limits exposure to the radiation, which delivers a concentrated dose of radiation to the cancerous tumors, killing them.
This advanced treatment requires a multi-disciplinary team of experts in the operating room to care for the patient including the ophthalmologist, radiation oncologists, radiologists, sterile processing personnel, pathologists and the entire operating team including nurses and anesthesiologists.
Genetic sampling to determine future risk
The three patients who received this first treatment suffered from a choroidal melanoma, a rare form of eye cancer. Melanomas are more commonly associated with skin cancers, but five percent of all melanomas are found in the eye. Until recently, these tumors were irradiated, but no biopsy material was obtained from inside the tumor.
The additional step of sampling some of the genetic material inside the tumor helps to determine the risk that the tumor might spread in the future.
While this is the first round of such cases performed at the University of Colorado Hospital, Oliver expects that many will follow. Within the year, he predicts, he and his colleagues will see 20 to 40 patients with eye cancer from throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Many of these patients will receive plaque brachytherapy.
The University of Colorado Hospital is the Rocky Mountain region's leading academic medical center, and has been recognized as one of the United States' best hospitals, according to U.S. News & World Report. It is best known as an innovator in patient care and often as one of the first hospitals to bring new medicine to patients' bedsides. Located at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo., the hospital's physicians are all affiliated with the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, part of the University of Colorado system. For more information, visit the UC Denver Newsroom.