Purpose: Most case series of patients managed by brachytherapy for uveal melanoma are small and survival data show considerable inter-study variation. The aim of this study was to summarise similarly structured case series by meta-analysis.
Methods: A systematic review generated 5 similarly structured case series including survival data for 1,066 patients treated by ruthenium plaque radiotherapy for uveal melanoma. After assessing the inter-study clinical heterogeneity, data were weighed for study size and pooled.
Results: Patient and radiotherapy characteristics were largely homogenous, but tumour size varied considerably between studies. The 5-year melanoma-related mortality rate was 6% for small and medium tumours (T1/T2) and 26% for large (T3) tumours. The 5-year and 10-year melanoma-related mortality rates for a balanced set of tumours with small, medium and large tumours being present in similar proportions were 14% and 22%, respectively.
Conclusion: Case series of patients with uveal melanoma managed by brachytherapy may be pooled to increase sample size and study power. The present estimate of survival following ruthenium plaque radiotherapy compares favourably with previously summarised data of survival after enucleation for similarly sized tumours.