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Prognostic Factors
Source: Intraocular (Uveal) Melanoma Treatment (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version, National Cancer Institute.
Source updated: May 16, 2025 · Captured 2026-09-09.
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Context: General Information About Intraocular (Uveal) Melanoma Treatment
Several factors influence prognosis. The most important factors include:
Cell type. For more information, see the Cellular Classification of Intraocular (Uveal) Melanoma section.
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Tumor size.
Location of the anterior margin of the tumor.
Degree of ciliary body involvement.
Extraocular extension.
Several additional microscopic features can affect the prognosis of intraocular melanoma, including:
Mitotic activity.
Lymphocytic infiltration.
Fibrovascular loops (possibly).
Cell type is the most commonly used predictor of outcome following enucleation. Patients with spindle-A cell melanomas have the best prognosis and patients with epithelioid cell melanomas have the least favorable prognosis.[1,4,9] Nevertheless, most tumors have an admixture of cell types, and there is no clear consensus regarding the proportion of epithelioid cells that constitutes designation of a tumor as mixed or epithelioid.[6]
Extraocular extension, recurrence, and metastasis are associated with an extremely poor prognosis, and long-term survival cannot be expected for patients with these features.[11] The 5-year mortality rate for patients with metastasis from ciliary body or choroidal melanoma is approximately 30%, compared with a rate of 2% to 3% for patients with iris melanomas.[12]
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Preserved source evidence · Not medical advice