Uveal melanoma and pregnancy. A report of 16 cases.

A review of 3706 consecutive patients with uveal melanoma over a 17-year period revealed that 16 patients (0.4%) were pregnant women at the time of diagnosis. The mean age at presentation in this group was 30 years and the mean months of gestation at the time of diagnosis of the posterior uveal melanoma was 6 months. Seven of the sixteen tumors were active uveal melanomas at the initial examination and were treated immediately, while the remaining nine tumors were initially diagnosed as suspicious choroidal nevi or dormant choroidal melanomas, seven of which grew into active melanomas during the course of the pregnancy, necessitating therapy. The tumors were managed by enucleation in 10 cases, plaque radiotherapy either during or after pregnancy in 4 cases, and observation in 2 cases. Histopathologically, the melanomas did not differ appreciably in cell type, mitotic activity, and other features when compared with a matched group of tumors in nonpregnant women. All of the patients who elected to carry the pregnancy to term (14 cases) delivered healthy babies with no placental or infant metastases. The 5-year survival rate using the life table method in these pregnant women with posterior uveal melanoma is 71% and is similar to the survival of nonpregnant women with posterior uveal melanoma reported in other series.