COBALT PLAQUES IN ADVANCED RETINOBLASTOMA

Seventy-one eyes of 64 patients with advanced retinoblastoma received 81 cobalt plaques for the treatment of advanced retinoblastoma. Sixty-three of the 64 patients had bilateral retinoblastoma. Fifty of the 63 patients with bilateral retinoblastoma had already had an enucleation of the fellow eye at the time of insertion of the plaque. Of the 64 patients who received a plaque, 60 had already failed prior therapy to the eye. More than half (45-81) of the tumors were larger than 10 mm in base diameter and 70 of the 81 tumors were either in the ciliary body, anterior chamber, or seeded into the vitreous. Eight of the 64 patients died of metastatic retinoblastoma (12.5%), and four of the survivors developed second nonocular tumors. In 44 of the 71 eyes, enucleation was prevented by the plaque. Of the 27 who required enucleation, 21 did so because of continued tumor growth.