Publication:

Successful treatment of cytomegalovirus retinitis with oral/ intravitreal antivirals in HIV-negative patients with lymphoma

Objectives: To report patients with systemic lymphoma and cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis, treated with a combination of oral and intravitreal antiviral agents on an outpatient basis. Methods: Retrospective cases series. Information was gathered from the database of the Uveitis clinics at Moorfields Eye Hospital, United Kingdom from December 2014 to December 2018. The inclusion criteria comprised the diagnosis of systemic lymphoma, associated with a diagnosis of CMV retinitis. Exclusion criteria were alternative ocular diagnosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), primary intraocular lymphoma, or other causes of immunosuppression. Results: All seven subjects had been under oncologist care for systemic lymphoma. CMV retinitis presented with a median of 61 months after the systemic lymphoma diagnosis. Five patients underwent a vitreous biopsy, and four of them returned PCR positive for CMV and the fifth patient had PCR positive in a blood sample. All patients were treated with oral Valganciclovir, with an induction dose of 900 mg every 12 h for up to 3 weeks until disease resolution and a maintenance dose thereafter. All but one received additional intravitreal Foscarnet injections, with a dose of 2.4 mg /0.1 ml. Conclusions: The management of patients with systemic lymphoma and CMV retinitis with oral and intravitreal antiviral agents, resulted in effective disease control.