Plaque Brachytherapy for Uveal Melanoma: The First Treatment of Its Kind in Lebanon
On Thursday, October 11th, 2018, Clemenceau Medical Center (CMC), in affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine International set another benchmark in the treatment of malignant tumors. This time, it was for “uveal melanoma”, a type of primary eye cancer that grows behind the retina. A specialized team of doctors performed the first treatment for uveal melanoma in Lebanon using plaque brachytherapy, which entails placing a radioactive gold plaque on the surface of the eye overlying the tumor. The plaque will then emit radiation to destroy the tumor cells, enabling the physicians to locally control the tumor growth and help save the patient’s eye and vision.
Broadcasted live for the first time in the country, the new treatment modality was handled by a CMC team of ophthalmologists, ocular oncologists, radiation oncologists, radiation physicists: Dr. Hassan Abdelaziz, Dr. Nicolas Zouain, Dr. Charbel Merheb, Dr. Abed Mroue, and from LAUMC Dr. Nicolas Ghazi. The procedure was performed on a 46-year old Lebanese woman who had been struggling with distorted vision due to uveal melanoma for more than two years.
The achievement came only one day prior to CMC’s hosting of the Annual Cancer Care Forum in its 6th edition, to reiterate CMC’s commitment to delivering better treatment alternatives for patients, with oncology as an ongoing priority. The forum’s objectives were to examine the integration of novel Radiotherapy procedures in the multimodality management of cancer, recent indications of Immunotherapy and regulatory approved new drugs in hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, and lastly reinforce the role of multidisciplinary approach of cancer care.
The Forum, which took place on October 12 and 13, gathered world-renowned speakers from Johns Hopkins Medicine International and experts from Lebanon and the region, to discuss the latest in cancer cases and treatments worldwide. To make this valuable knowledge even more accessible, participating doctors also held a dedicated exchange session with the media to answer all questions and queries about this ever-evolving field of medicine.