Choroidal melanoma growth patterns.

Thirty patients with choroidal melanoma in whom tumour thickness was found to increase on serial examination were retrospectively studied. Often when tumours started to increase in thickness, after a period of relative quiescence, the growth rate was relatively rapid. Increased tumour thickness was associated with increased tumour growth. During the phase of active tumour growth the height of the lesion tended to increase more than exponentially. Possible inadvertent biases in the selection of the patients studied prohibit wide-ranging conclusions from these data.