Uveal melanoma is the most common intraocular malignancy in adults. Although rates of local control for uveal melanoma exceed 95% with radiotherapy or enucleation, as many as 50% of patients develop hematogenous metastases, which manifest in the decades following initial diagnosis and are uniformly and rapidly fatal. Recent compelling evidence suggests that not all uveal melanomas are themselves equivalent with respect to metastatic potential and patient survival. This review focuses on the mounting evidence of survival disparities based on intrinsic tumor clinical and histopathologic characteristics and based on tumor genetics and gene expression profiles.
Keywords: Disparities; epidemiology; genetics; metastasis; ocular tumors; ophthalmology; prognosis; risk factors; survival; uveal melanoma.