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Treatment of Melanoma-Associated Retinopathy

  • Neurologic Ophthalmology and Otology
  • Published:
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Opinion statement

Melanoma-associated retinopathy is a rare paraneoplastic disorder that is challenging to diagnose and even more difficult to treat. Because of the rarity of the disease, therapy is based on analysis of case series and case reports. Based on evidence from these reports, first-line therapy is cytoreduction of metastatic disease through metastasectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation. This can be combined with intravenous immunoglobulin. For refractory visual symptoms, additional therapies include systemic corticosteroids and plasmapheresis, but the success of these strategies has been limited. Because of the rarity of the disorder, new therapies should be evaluated and reported in the literature to expand our clinical understanding of this autoimmune disease.

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References and Recommended Reading

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Dr. Michael S. Lee from the University of Minnesota for providing funduscopic photographs of a patient with MAR.

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No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation, University of Minnesota Medical School, MMC 480, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Steven F. Powell MD & Arkadiusz Z. Dudek MD, PhD

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  1. Steven F. Powell MD
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  2. Arkadiusz Z. Dudek MD, PhD
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Correspondence to Arkadiusz Z. Dudek MD, PhD.

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Powell, S.F., Dudek, A.Z. Treatment of Melanoma-Associated Retinopathy. Curr Treat Options Neurol 12, 54–63 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11940-009-0057-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11940-009-0057-x

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