Clinical evaluation of a paper chart for predicting ruthenium plaque placement in relation to choroidal melanoma

PurposeTo determine the accuracy of estimated tumour location and required plaque position using fundus diagrams, and to evaluate their applicability in daily clinical practice.Patients and methodsBetween September 2013 and March 2016, all patients treated with ruthenium plaque brachytherapy for choroidal melanoma at the Department of Ophthalmology in Poznań underwent pretreatment planning with the use of printed or electronic fundus diagrams www.oculonco.comThe estimated distances were then verified intraoperatively.ResultsThere were 40 eyes of 40 patients: 15 men, 25 women, with a median age of 61 years (range: 21-88). The median longitudinal basal diameter (LBD) of the treated melanomas was 10.4 mm (range: 6.5-14.9) and the median thickness was 4.1 mm (range: 1.9-6). The final postition of the anterior tumour margin was within 1 mm of the estimated location in 39 cases (97 %), and within 2 mm in 1 case (3 %). Median follow-up was 15 months (range: 3-36). By the close of the study, there was one local tumour recurrence (3%) and one patient died of unrelated cause 1 year after treatment. No patient developed metastases by study close.ConclusionsThe plaque planning system using the paper fundus diagrams proved to be accurate, easily applicable and should aid plaque placement where computer modelling is not possible.