[Selected prognostic factors of malignant uveal melanoma]

Malignant uveal melanoma is the most common intraocular tumor in adults. Despite very good local treatment results, patients' survival has not improved in the last decades. The main cause of death is metastatic spread, which occurs with a variable time delay after tumor discovery in 50% of patients. After metastasis development the mean survival rate decreases to less than 6 months. Progression to metastatic disease is associated with different prognostic factors. The spectrum of conventional clinical and histopathologic prognostic factors like age, tumor size, location, extrascleral growth, histopathologic cell type, vascularisation, invasion of sclera, etc., has been enlarged by using new immunological, molecular, immunohistochemical and cytogenetical methods. Current research also focuses on development of an adjuvant systemic therapy which could delay or prevent metastasis development in high-risk patients. It is necessary to determine reliable prognostic factors in order to select potential candidates for such a systemic treatment. In this article we present a short overview of known prognostic factors of uveal melanoma.