Immunotherapy-Resistant Vitreoretinal Metastatic Melanoma

Abstract

Purpose: To describe 2 cases of vitreoretinal metastases in patients treated with immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma.

Methods: Retrospective case series.

Results: We pre-sent 2 patients with metastatic melanoma treated with systemic immunotherapy with subsequent development of ocular vitreoretinal metastasis. The first patient was a male with metastatic melanoma from a site of unknown origin that was in complete remission following a course of ipilimumab and nivolumab therapy. He presented to an outside provider for evaluation of vitritis and a pigmented lesion in the right eye that was presumed secondary to toxoplasmosis. After failing initial management with oral antibiotics, he underwent diagnostic pars plana vitrectomy, and vitreous biopsy was consistent with metastatic melanoma to the vitreous. He was additionally found to have an elevated pigmented retinal mass consistent with a retinal metastasis from melanoma that initially failed treatment with plaque brachytherapy and ultimately required enucleation. The second case was a monocular male with metastatic melanoma from cutaneous melanoma with decreased vision 3 months after the initiation of nivolumab therapy. He presented with dense vitreous debris in his seeing eye and was thought to have nivolumab-associated inflammation. He was initially treated with difluprednate with improved vision and decrease in vitreous debris, but developed dense pigment deposition in the affected eye later in the treatment course. Diagnostic pars plana vitrectomy was performed, and vitreous biopsy was positive for malignant melanoma cells. His systemic disease was in remission at the time of diagnosis of ocular metastasis. External beam radiation was recommended given his monocular status.

Conclusion: Vitreoretinal metastasis can develop despite favorable systemic response to immunotherapy in patients with metastatic cutaneous melanoma. Lack of ocular penetration and extension of life span with immunotherapeutic agents may be the underlying mechanism for vitreoretinal metastasis.

Keywords: Immunotherapy; Vitreoretinal diseases and surgery; Vitreoretinal metastasis.