Metastatic choroidal melanoma to the contralateral orbit 40 years after enucleation
S. E. Coupland, S. Sidiki, B. J. Clark, K. McClaren, P. Kyle and W. R. Lee
Department of Pathology, Western Infirmary, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow.
Metastatic uveal melanoma to the contralateral orbit is extremely rare,
with only eight cases in the literature having been reported. We reviewed
the clinical presentation, the histologic findings of the primary and
secondary tumors, and the clinical outcome of these cases and studied an
additional case of metastatic choroidal melanoma to the contralateral orbit
that occurred 40 years after enucleation for the primary tumor. The long
interval between recognition of the primary tumor and the appearance of
clinically manifest metastatic disease in the contralateral orbit is the
longest reported in the literature to date. The histologic features of the
tumor cells of the enucleation specimen and those of the orbital metastasis
were similar, consisting of spindle-cell type with minimal atypia. Combined
use of immuno-phenotyping and electron microscopy substantiated the
diagnosis of melanoma.
