Retinoblastoma Treatment

Retinoblastoma is a retinal tumor, one of the most severe eye diseases in young children (more often from the first weeks to 6 years of life), in more than half of cases accompanied by a mutation in the RB1 gene. According to various estimates, retinoblastoma accounts for about 2–4% of all malignant tumors of childhood, or about 3–4 cases per million children. Almost always, this tumor is diagnosed in children of a very young age, up to 5 years, in most cases – even up to 2 years. In adolescents and adults, this tumor practically does not occur.

Symptoms of pathology

Most often, the first sign of the disease is the whitish “glow” of the pupil – leukocoria or a symptom of the “cat’s eye.” This phenomenon is associated with the reflection of light from the affected retina tumor. The pupil may also look reddish. Other possible symptoms are strabismus, decreased vision (but it is difficult to diagnose in very young children), enlargement of the pupil with a decrease in its response to light, a change in the colour of the iris, redness of the eye, pain.

Treatment of the disease

In order not to make a mistake with making a diagnosis, which will be fraught with the health and vision of the child, the presence of specialized equipment is required. The Children’s Department of Hemato Oncology at the multidisciplinary Israeli clinic Tel Aviv Medical Clinic has advanced, highly informative equipment. Our most experienced doctors, real professionals, regularly improve the methods, which allows you to conduct examinations with 100% accuracy of the result. The eye bottom is studied by modern technologies, among which ophthalmoscopy prevails.

Specialists will determine the size and stage of malignant formation, localization and degree of prevalence. Based on the data and individual indicators, treatment is prescribed, where the main goal is to eliminate the tumor and preserve vision. The choice of treatments for retinoblastoma depends on the nature of the lesion (unilateral or bilateral), the prevalence of the tumor, and the degree of visual decline. Both conventional treatments used for most malignant tumors (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery) and other approaches are widely used.

In general, it can be said that the treatment of retinoblastoma is almost always complex, its strategy depends on many factors and is determined individually for each patient.