Impact of Systemic Chemotherapy and Delayed Enucleation on Survival of Children with Advanced Intraocular Retinoblastoma

PURPOSE:Primary enucleation is a well-established method to achieve cure for advanced intraocular retinoblastoma. Recent treatment advances have induced a trend toward trial eye salvage using chemotherapy or other modalities. We investigated how pre-enucleation/postenucleation systemic chemotherapy and the resulting delayed enucleation affect patient survival after failed trial eye salvage. DESIGN:Multicenter, retrospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS:Children with Group D and E retinoblastoma primarily or secondarily enucleated at 29 Chinese treatment centers. METHODS:Data reviewed included clinical staging, time from diagnosis to enucleation, numbers of cycles of carboplatin, etoposide/teniposide and vincristine chemotherapy, disease-specific survival (DSS), histopathology, and follow-up. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:Primary outcome was DSS. Secondary outcome was histopathology of enucleated eyes. RESULTS:Primarily enucleated eyes had significantly shorter delay from diagnosis to enucleation than eyes treated with pre-enucleation chemotherapy (P < 0.001). Delay between diagnosis and enucleation >3.5 months (Group D) and >2 months (Group E) decreased survival (Group D: P = 0.018; Group E: P = 0.017). Compared with primarily enucleated children, children with 1 to 3 cycles of pre-enucleation chemotherapy for Group E eyes had no significant difference in survival (P = 0.74), but those who received ≥4 cycles had worse survival (P = 0.025). After pre-enucleation chemotherapy, more children with Group E (but not Group D) eyes had high-risk histopathology (pT3/pT4) (Group D: P = 0.076; Group E: P < 0.001) and worse survival than those primarily enucleated (P < 0.001). Postenucleation chemotherapy improved survival of children with high-risk histopathology (pT3/pT4) (P = 0.001) but did not change survival of children with low-risk histopathology (pT1/pT2) (P = 0.52). CONCLUSIONS:We observed that pre-enucleation chemotherapy offered no survival benefit and timely enucleation minimized risk of metastatic death. Postenucleation chemotherapy improved survival of children with high-risk histopathology but was not useful for those with low-risk histopathology. These findings facilitate informed discussion on the risks and benefits of delayed enucleation, the use of systemic chemotherapy for trial salvage of eyes with advanced intraocular retinoblastoma, and the specific children who benefit from postenucleation chemotherapy.