The missing piece that helped Heidi make the case for her own ocular melanoma care

Meet Heidi, a cancer survivor from South Carolina. She first noticed something was wrong when she covered her left eye and realized she could barely see out of it. What her optometrist first suspected was a detached retina turned out to be a large ocular melanoma. Because of its size, Heidi underwent an enucleation rather than plaque therapy, and during surgery her care team also identified areas of pigmentation that led to additional radiation treatment. A biopsy taken at the time of surgery was sent to Castle Biosciences for DecisionDx-UM testing, with results uploaded directly to her patient chart. For Heidi, the result gave her something concrete to hold onto — a piece of the puzzle that explains why she needs the specific scans and follow-up schedule her providers recommend, and the confidence to advocate for that care.