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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Ophthalmology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1491278
Choroidal Metastases from Thoracic Cancer: A Retrospective Study on Clinical Characteristics and Treatment Efficacy
Provisionally accepted- Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China
Objective: To examine the clinical characteristics of choroidal metastases (CMs) and to assess the efficacy of various treatment strategies for CMs in a specific patient cohort.Methods: This retrospective case series study included 32 patients (38 eyes) diagnosed with CM at the Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University People's Hospital, from 2009-2022. The cohort included 10 males (10 eyes) and 22 females (28 eyes) with a mean age of 52.53±10.81 years. Detailed medical histories and multiple ophthalmic examinations were conducted for all patients, and diagnoses were confirmed by two senior ophthalmologists. Clinical characteristics, treatment responses, and follow-up outcomes were analyzed.Results: Lung cancer was the most common primary tumor (53.1%), with 6 patients initially presenting with ocular symptoms. Initial ultrasound imaging revealed a mean tumor height of 3.02 mm and a mean basal diameter of 11.09 mm. Optical coherence tomography(OCT) revealed irregular, highly reflective foci with undulating anterior surfaces, and fluorescein angiography (FFA) revealed early choroidal tumor masking and late-phase mottled hyperfluorescence with occasional leakage. Indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) revealed hypofluorescence in early and late phases, with slight mottled hyperfluorescence in the late phase. The follow-up period ranged from 3 months to 4 years (median 4 months), during which systemic and local treatments effectively controlled or delayed tumor progression in most patients.Conclusion: Lung and breast cancers are the leading sources of CMs, with bilateral or multifocal lesions more frequently linked to breast cancer. Treatment for CMs should be meticulously individualized and should take into account the patient's overall condition, tumor burden, and precise tumor location. Local treatment is essential for patients with significant ocular symptoms. Combined local and systemic treatments resulted in a more significant reduction in tumor burden.
Keywords: Choroidal metastases1, ocular tumors2, tumor metastasis3, thoracic cancer4, Bevacizumab5, plaque radiotherapy6, transpupillary thermotherapy7
Received: 04 Sep 2024; Accepted: 10 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lin, Zhong, Yang, Liu, Liang and Cheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yong Cheng, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China
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