Targeted Therapy and Immunotherapy for Advanced Malignant Conjunctival Tumors: Systematic Review.

PURPOSE: To review the outcomes of targeted therapy and immunotherapy in advanced conjunctival tumors, including conjunctival squamous cell carcinoma, conjunctival melanoma, and conjunctival lymphoma. METHODS: A Pubmed database systematic search was performed between January 1999 and December 2022. The literature search was limited to studies published in English. RESULTS: This review included 142 patients with advanced malignant conjunctival tumors from 42 articles. In the conjunctival squamous cell carcinoma group, 2 cases of advanced conjunctival squamous cell carcinoma treated with epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors showed significant tumor size improvement after 7.5 months of follow-up. Among 7 cases treated with systemic immunotherapy, 5 cases (72%) had complete response (CR), 1 case (14%) showed partial response (PR), and 1 case (14%) had stable disease (SD) after 16 months. In the conjunctival melanoma group, among 18 cases treated with combined v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1/mitogen-activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase inhibitors, 6 (33%) had CR, 5 (28%) had PR, 2 (11%) had SD, and 5 (28%) had progressive disease after 24.8 months of follow-up. Of 44 conjunctival melanoma cases treated with immunotherapy, 12 (28%) had CR, 9 (20%) had PR, 7(16%) had SD, and 16 (36%) had progressive disease after 14.2 months. Systemic Rituximab treatment for conjunctival lymphoma cases resulted in CR in 21 patients (63%), PR in 11 patients (33%), and SD in 1 patient (3%) after 20.5 months of follow-up. Intralesional Rituximab injections in 38 conjunctival lymphoma cases showed CR in 28 patients (75%), PR in 7 patients (19%), SD in 1 patient (2%), and progressive disease in 2 patients (4%) after 20.4 months of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Despite limited clinical case reports and short-term follow-ups, targeted therapy and immunotherapy have shown promising results for advanced malignant conjunctival tumors.

INTRAVITREAL MELPHALAN INJECTION AS A SECOND-LINE LOCAL THERAPY IN VITREORETINAL LYMPHOMA: Case Series.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of intravitreal melphalan (IVM) injection therapy in vitreoretinal lymphoma. METHODS: Eight eyes of five biopsy-proven vitreoretinal lymphoma patients who were treated with IVM injection as a second-line therapy after intravitreal methotrexate and rituximab injections were retrospectively evaluated between January 2011 and March 2023. RESULTS: The medical records of five vitreoretinal lymphoma patients (mean age of 62 years at the diagnosis) including 4 (80%) female patients and 1 (20%) male patient were retrospectively analyzed. Three patients (60%) either had a history of central nervous lymphoma or developed it during the follow-up. Patients were previously treated with a mean of five cycles of monthly intravitreal methotrexate and rituximab injections. All eyes showed complete response by the disappearance of vitreal and/or subretinal neoplastic cells within 6 weeks after IVM injections (range, 1-4 injections per eye). Of 12 IVM injections, 3 (25%) injections were associated with macular edema diagnosed on optical coherence tomography at 1-month follow-up and resolved spontaneously within 5 months. The IVM administration induced new retinal pigment epithelium changes in three eyes (37%). CONCLUSION: Intravitreal melphalan injection may be effective in the management of vitreoretinal lymphoma as a second-line local therapy. Randomized clinical trials with larger numbers of patients are needed to establish the efficacy, treatment protocol, and safety of IVM injection.

Acute Sterile Endophthalmitis Following Intravitreal Rituximab Injection in Primary Vitreoretinal Lymphoma: Case Series.

OBJECTIVE OR PURPOSE: To describe sterile endophthalmitis following intravitreal rituximab (Rituxan, Genentech) injection for treatment of vitreoretinal lymphoma (VRL). DESIGN: Retrospective case series. SUBJECTS, PARTICIPANTS, AND/OR CONTROLS: Medical records of biopsy-proven VRL patients who received intravitreal rituximab (RTX) between January 2011 and December 2021 in Kellogg Eye Center, University of Michigan were reviewed. 3 patients presented with sterile endophthalmitis after the second dose of intravitreal RTX were included.Methods, Intervention, or Testing: Intravitreal methotrexate (400µg/0.1ml) and rituximab (1mg/0.1ml) injections given a week apart, monthly.Main Outcome Measures: Clinical presentation and response to treatment including visual acuity, degree of inflammation and intraocular pressure . RESULTS: All cases had bilateral disease and received the first dose of intravitreal RTX without any side effects. All cases developed bilateral corneal edema with Descemet's folds, mutton-fat keratic precipitates, anterior chamber and vitreous cells with hazy fundus view approximately within 1 week after the second RTX injection. Intraocular pressures were increased in Cases 2 and 3. Clinical findings improved to baseline with topical corticosteroid therapy within 1 month in all cases, and additional topical antiglaucomatous medication in Cases 2 and 3. Additionally, Case 1 received the third dose of RTX injection to the right eye 1 month after the second injection and repeating dense anterior chamber and vitreous cells developed in 1 day. Her vision decreased to counting fingers from 20/40, and intraocular pressure increased. After topical steroids and antiglaucomatous medications, her intraocular inflammation subsided. Her vision improved to 20/30, and intraocular pressure became normal in the right eye. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first case series documenting sterile endophthalmitis following intravitreal rituximab in vitreoretinal lymphoma. Recognition of sterile endophthalmitis is important in differentiating from vitreoretinal lymphoma recurrence and infectious endophthalmitis. Close observation and topical steroid drops seem to be effective.

Prognostic factors of visual quality after transepithelial photorefractive keratectomy in patients with low-to-moderate myopia.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate visual quality after high-frequency transepithelial photorefractive keratectomy (t-PRK) by assessing the relationship between the operational parameters and the first-year postoperative corneal higher-order aberrations (HOAs). METHODS: This was a retrospective study of low-to-moderate myopic eyes treated with t-PRK. The files of 46 low-to-moderate myopic patients (90 eyes; myopia up to -5D) were included in the study. Eyes having a cylindrical refractive error more than 2D and the patients not having completed a 1-year follow-up were excluded from the study. Factors including age, preoperative mean spherical equivalent (MSE), mean keratometry (Km), central corneal thickness (CCT), scotopic pupil, optical zone (OZ), transition zone (TZ), ablation zone (AZ), central ablation depth (CAD), and static cyclotorsion correction (SCC) were analyzed for association with the first-year postoperative corneal HOAs. RESULTS: Corneal HOAs were found to be increased postoperatively with a 6-mm pupil (P < 0.05). The increased spherical aberration had a positive correlation with patient age, preoperative MSE, Km, TZ, and CAD, whereas it had a negative relationship with OZ and AZ (P < 0.05). The corneal coma had a significantly positive correlation with preoperative MSE and a significantly negative relationship with OZ (P < .05). CONCLUSION: Postoperatively induced corneal HOAs may affect patients' scotopic vision (night time driving, cinema) when the pupils get larger. The relationship between patient age, preoperative MSE, Km, CAD, TZ, OZ, AZ, and postoperative corneal HOAs underlines the need to consider the effects of these parameters on the final vision quality.