Management of pterygium with surgery and radiation therapy

Pterygial Derived Fibroblasts Express Functionally Active Histamine and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptors

“…It is therefore reasonable to assume that medical intervention will remain curative with respect to this condition. Several therapeutic approaches have been proposed, but these often utilize generally acting molecules (Kria, Ohia and Amemiya, 1998b;Oguz, Basar and Gurler, 1999;Wong and Law, 1999) or employ radioactive sources (Paryani et al, 1994; Nishimura et al, 2000) to inhibit recurrence. In order to develop more selective approaches an improved understanding of the cellular systems expressed in the pathological tissue is required.…”

Soft X-Ray Therapy of Recurrent Pterygium – an Alternative to 90Sr Eye Applicators

“…New surgical procedures like free conjunctival autograft are used to reduce the local recurrence rate [4,19]. Locally applied postoperative irradiation using a 90 Sr source with low-energy beta irradiation has been shown to reduce the recurrence rate below 20% and is considered an established method [2,9,11,14]. Other techniques to reduce recurrence involve topical application of antimitotic agents such as mitomycin C. The majority of local recurrences will develop within the first 2 years following surgery [9,18].…”

Beta irradiation: new uses for an old treatment: a review

“…Other reports used doses from 1000 to 4000 cGy, often in divided fractions. [30][31][32][33] Aswad and Baum 34 performed a trial that indicated that administration immediately after surgery was more effective than later administration. Typical doses have been of the order of 2000-6000 cGy, frequently given in fractions.…”