EXTERNAL RADIOTHERAPY FOR CARCINOMA OF THE EYELID - REPORT OF 850 CASES TREATED

Purpose: We report a retrospective series of 850 patients treated by e xternal irradiation for carcino of the eyelid at Institut Curie and we compare our results with other techniques: brachytherapy and surgery. Methods and Materials: Eight hundred fifty patients were treated by e xternal radiotherapy for carcinoma of the eyelid, None of these patien ts have been previously treated, All the patients were classified acco rding to the TNM classification of (UTCC), We distinguished five histo logical types and five clinical groups according to the site of the sk in tumor, Three modalities of external radiotherapy were used: contact therapy, conventional radiotherapy, and electrontherapy, We reviewed the clinical files of the 850 patients who went regularly at follow-up visits. Results: We report the 5-year survival results-alive with no evidence of disease: 72%; alive with progression: 2%; died from tumor progression: 0.5%; died from intercurrent disease: 19.5%; and lost to followup: 5%, The 5-year local control rate was 97.5%, We observed 45 failures-lymph node, metastatic, and local-and emphasize this last gro up by presenting the results of treatment of these local failures, We studied the complications of treatment: 2.3% of corneal complications, 2% of cataracts, and 1.4% of serious ocular complications. Conclusion s: Our results concerning local failures and loss of the eye are compa rable to those reported for other techniques involving brachytherapy o r surgery. Overall, external radiotherapy is a safe and effective trea tment, as it ensures a high local control rate and provides perfectly satisfactory functional and esthetic results, It seemed particularely useful to report this series in that few publications:are available on this subject that, nevertheless, constitutes a topical issue.