PaulT.FingerMDFACS

Summary

• Paul T. Finger, MD, FACS, consultant for ocular tumors, orbital disease, and ophthalmic radiation therapy, has spent decades refining his knowledge and experience in the diagnosis and treatment of eye cancer. At first he systematically reviewed, analyzed, and published surveys about the most common treatments. This specialized knowledge led him to create new and improved methods of diagnosis and treatment. Some examples include: new minimally invasive, less traumatic biopsy techniques, two new radiation sources for treatment of ocular tumors and benign disease, chemotherapy eye drops for conjunctival melanoma, and others. Dr. Finger provides excellence in ocular tumor, orbital disease, and ophthalmic radiation therapy.
  For example, the most common primary intraocular cancer is melanoma (often called choroidal melanoma). Dr. Finger was the first to introduce palladium-103 seeds and yttrium-90 discs, for ophthalmic plaque brachytherapy. Then when confronted with the surgical problem of providing radiation for melanomas near, touching, or covering the optic disc, he invented slotted eye plaques to allow the plaque to overcome the orbital optic nerve sheath behind the eye. For the first time, radiation plaques completely surrounded the tumor. He also designed small eye plaques for iris melanomas and uses HDR orbital brachytherapy to avoid orbital exenteration and provide a better cosmetic result compared to EBRT. Dr. Finger's most commonly used innovations is intravitreal anti-VEGF treatment for radiation vasculopathy which he invented in 2006.
  Chair, of the AJCC Ophthalmic Oncology Task Force, Dr. Finger has established world-wide AJCC universal staging for eye cancers as well as the joint American Brachytherapy-AAPM guidelines for radiation of melanoma and retinoblastoma. His CV currently contains >350 scientific articles, plus more than 56 book chapters, 3 books, plus numerous US patents.