Iris and Ciliary Body Melanoma

A 57 year old woman noted a light spot on her iris 10 months before being seen at our institution. Her local optometrist had never seen this over the 3 years that the patient had been followed by him. The patient was healthy and had no history of other tumors. One can see a thick angle lesion on slit-lamp examination and gonioscopy. On echography the lesion appeared to be confined to the iris and anterior ciliary body however, in surgery the mass was larger than anticipated. The histopathology was that of a malignant melanoma with epitheloid cells extending to the clinically- uninvolved ciliary body. The patient was advised to consider enucleation and preceded with this.