Purpose: To correlate vortex vein invasion with established prognostic factors for uveal melanoma.
Methods: Enucleated eyes with a confirmed histopathological diagnosis of uveal melanoma with vortex vein invasion were identified, over a 10-year period. Established uveal melanoma prognostic factors, with tumour genetics were correlated with vortex vein invasion and patient survival.
Results: Microscopic vortex vein involvement was present in 29 of 244 (11.9%) uveal melanomas. Of 29, 6 (20.7%) tumours had macroscopic evidence of vortex vein invasion. Of 29, 14 (48.3%) tumours also showed evidence of non-vortex vein, 'direct' scleral invasion. 23 (79.3%) of 29 melanomas involved only the choroid. The mean maximum diameter of tumours with vortex vein invasion was 15.8 mm and the mean thickness was 9.7 mm. The uveal melanoma was a discrete nodule in 27 of 29 (93.1%) cases. Histologically, 8 of 29 tumours (27.6%) were spindle cell, 19 of 29 (65.5%) were mixed cell, and 2 of 29 (6.9%) were epithelioid cell type. Of 29, 22 (75.9%) uveal melanomas with vortex vein invasion contained extracellular matrix networks and loops. Genetic abnormalities correlated with poor prognosis were seen in 25 of 29 (86.2%) tumours with vortex vein invasion. Liver metastasis was confirmed in 19 of 29 (65.5%) patients with vortex vein invasion. No patients with uveal melanomas showing vortex vein invasion suffered orbital recurrence of disease following enucleation.
Conclusions: The trends show that vortex vein invasion is associated with a choroidal location, large tumour size, spindle cell bias, presence of extracellular matrix loops/networks and genetic markers. A higher proportion of patients with vortex vein invasion progress to develop liver metastasis compared with the general uveal melanoma population.