The Department of Ophthalmology in collaboration with the Department of Radiation Oncology and Medical Physics Unit at the American University of Beirut Medical Center successfully treated a child with plaque brachytherapy, a local radiation therapy that was able to save the patient's eye and life from cancer. Plaque Brachytherapy is a sophisticated and localized radiation therapy for the treatment of recurrent retinoblastoma, as it provides focused treatment of eye cancer without damaging the surrounding normal structure. It is an eye salvaging and effective treatment for ocular tumors.
This new procedure was carried out on a 5-year-old girl with bilateral retinoblastoma who had been receiving chemotherapy and laser to an active tumor in her eye. The retinoblastoma team at AUBMC decided to proceed with plaque brachytherapy which involved suturing a gold implant the size of a coin which contains radioactive seeds on the outside of the eye to deliver the radiation exactly to the tumor. The plaque stays sutured on the eye for 3 days and is then removed in a different procedure. A month after the radiation treatment, the tumor had completely regressed.
This is the first time that AUBMC performs this eye-salvaging procedure that requires a lot of planning on behalf of the ophthalmologist and the radiation oncology teams. The procedure was performed by an ocular oncologist, Dr. Wajiha Kheir, in conjunction with a multidisciplinary team consisting of Dr. Wassim Jalbout, head of Medical Physics Unit, Dr. Toufic Eid, a radiation oncologist, Dr. Raya Saab, an oncologist and took a lot of hard work and coordination.
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology Wajiha Kheir said, “Despite all the challenges we are facing in Lebanon, AUBMC is now able to provide an eye-saving and life-saving intervention to patients with ocular tumors. This is an example of a highly specialized procedure requiring years of training being offered at our institution."
Head of the Medical Physics Unit Wassim Jalbout said, “This is a new procedure which we introduced at AUBMC; it required sophisticated and accurate radiation dose calculations and planning from the Medical Physics team, as well as careful physical manipulation of radioactive seeds. The result was a total success."
Interim Chairperson of Radiation Oncology Toufic Eid said, “Work on this program was initiated in the Department of Radiation Oncology a year ago with Dr. Fady Geara, the chairperson of this department. We accepted the challenge to start this advanced treatment during the unprecedented hardships Lebanon is going through, and the result was a big success.
Chairperson and Director of the Department of Pediatrics Miguel Abboud highly praised this successful procedure and commented, “This is a complex procedure that saves vision and can only be implemented at centers of excellence like AUBMC. Patients are very fortunate to have this available in Lebanon despite all the challenges"
This procedure further cements AUBMC as a leading medical center in Lebanon and the region in terms of using state-of-the-art techniques and interventions that help in saving the lives of patients and providing them with the highest standards of patient care.