Abstract
Background
Conjunctival papilloma is often resistant to treatment. Various therapies have been reported with no gold standard. The purpose of this study was to compare treatment outcomes after various therapies.
Methods
A retrospective chart review of 30 conjunctival papilloma patients from 2009–2020. Data on demographics, tumour characteristics, primary treatment and outcomes were collected. The primary outcome was the frequency of complete tumour resolution and recurrence rate of each primary therapy. The secondary outcome was treatment related side effects.
Results
The mean age was 57.5 years (3–93 years) with male predominance (n = 22, 73.3%). Eleven eyes were treated with interferon α-2b (IFN), seven with 5-fluorouracil (5FU), and 10 with excision biopsy and cryotherapy (6 with adjuvant therapy with IFN). The frequency of tumour resolution was 36.4% (4/11), 28.5% (2/7), and 100% (10/10) in each group, respectively. The mean time to resolution was faster in the surgical group compared to the medical group (1 day vs 159 days, p < 0.001). There was higher tumour recurrence with 11% in the surgical vs 0% in the medical group at 6 months and at 12 months, 22% recurrence in the surgical and 0% in the medical group (p = 0.52). However, the differences were not statistically significant.
Conclusion
Papilloma resolution is faster with surgical excision as compared to medical therapy. However, recurrences are more frequent after surgical versus medical treatment.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Funding
NIH Center Core Grant P30EY014801, RPB Unrestricted Award and Career Development Awards, The Dr. Ronald and Alicia Lepke Grant, The Lee and Claire Hager Grant, The H. Scott Huizenga Grant, The Grant and Diana Stanton-Thornbrough Grant, The Robert Baer Family Grant, The Emilyn Page and Mark Feldberg Grant, The Jose Ferreira de Melo Grant, The Robert and Virginia Farr Grant, The Richard and Kathy Lesser Grant, The Michele and Ted Kaplan Grant, The Calvin and Flavia Oak Foundation, The Honourable A. Jay Cristol Grant, The Carol Soffer Grant, The Christian Kathe Grant, and The Richard Azar Family Grant (Dr. Karp/institutional grants), Mr. and Mrs. Irwin Friedman Grant, The Roberto and Antonia Menendez Family Grant, The Stephen Takach Grant, The Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Research and Development, Clinical Sciences R&D (CSRD) I01 CX002015 (Dr. Galor) and Biomedical Laboratory R&D (BLRD) Service I01 BX004893 (Dr. Galor), Department of Defense Gulf War Illness Research Program (GWIRP) W81XWH-20-1-0579 (Dr. Galor) and Vision Research Program (VRP) W81XWH-20-1-0820 (Dr. Galor), National Eye Institute R01EY026174 (Dr. Galor) and R61EY032468 (Dr. Galor), and Research to Prevent Blindness Unrestricted Grant (institutional). Nikolaidis institution (Dr. Theotoka).
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WS: conception of the study, data acquisition, analysis and draughting the manuscript. DT: data acquisition and analysis. MZ: data acquisition and draughting the manuscript. AG: conception of the study, data analysis, critical revision of the manuscript. CK: conception of the study, data analysis, final approval of the manuscript.
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Sripawadkul, W., Theotoka, D., Zein, M. et al. Conjunctival papilloma treatment outcomes: a 12-year-retrospective study. Eye 37, 977–982 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-022-02329-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-022-02329-3
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