Demographic and clinical features of conjunctival tumours at a tertiary care centre

ABSTRACT

Clinical relevance

This study investigates the demographic and clinical features of conjunctival tumours.

Background

Conjunctival tumours include a large spectrum of conditions ranging from benign lesions to aggressive, life-threatening malignancies. Knowing the distribution of conjunctival tumours by age and gender is important for reducing cancer morbidity.

Methods

The clinical records of 375 patients (410 eyes) diagnosed with a conjunctival mass at a tertiary referral centre between February 1999 and November 2020 were retrospectively evaluated.

Results

Two-hundred-seventeen (57.9%) patients were male and 158 (42.1%) were female. Of 410 conjunctival tumours, 159 (38.8%) were benign, 106 (25.9%) premalignant, and 145 (35.4%) malignant. Overall, the 3 most common diagnoses were squamous cell carcinoma (SCC, 19.5%), conjunctival intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN, 18.3%), and naevus (17.8%). The most common benign, premalignant, and malignant tumours were naevus (n = 73/159, 45.9%), CIN (n = 75/106, 70.8%), and SCC (n = 80/145, 55.2%) respectively. Naevus was the most common tumour in ≤20 years and > 20-40 years old patient groups (56.2% and 25.4% respectively). CIN was the most frequent tumour in patients aged > 40-60 years (25.7%). SCC was the most common tumour in > 60-80 years and > 80 years old patient groups (44.3% and 80.0% respectively). The median patient age was greater in patients with malignant tumours (64.5 years) compared to patients with premalignant (55.5 years, p = 0.011) and benign tumours (22.0 years, p < 0.001). Malignant tumours displayed larger base diameter, greater thickness, and intrinsic vessels compared to premalignant or benign lesions (p < 0.001 for each parameter). Malignant tumours also displayed more amelanotic vs melanotic appearance (p < 0.001) and limbal vs extralimbal bulbar location compared to benign lesions (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Premalignant and malignant tumours comprised 61.2% of all conjunctival tumours and were usually detected in patients > 40 years of age in this study.

KEYWORDS:

• Conjunctival intraepithelial neoplasia
• conjunctival melanoma
• conjunctival naevus
• conjunctival squamous cell carcinoma
• conjunctival tumours

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.