Retinoblastoma Treatments in South Africa

To schedule treatment for retinoblastoma, your child's doctor must know the tumor's precise size and location to establish the stage of illness.

• Intraocular retinoblastoma - Cancer is discovered in one or in both eyes but doesn’t extend beyond the eye into the tissues around the eye or even to other body parts.
• Extraocular retinoblastoma - Cancer has spread beyond the eye, often through the optic nerve. It might be limited to the tissues around the eye, or it might have extended to other parts of the body.
• Trilateral retinoblastoma - In a few patients with bilateral retinoblastoma, a similar tumor grows in the pineal gland at the base of the brain. The existence of these tumors may lead to other neurological symptoms and need neuroimaging of the brain for prognosis.
• Recurrent retinoblastoma - Recurrent illness signifies that cancer has returned or advanced after it has been treated. It might reappear in the eye or anywhere else in the body.

• Leukocoria (white pupil or cat's eye reflex).
• Misaligned eyes (strabismus)
• Blurred vision

Retinoblastoma might be nonhereditary or hereditary. The hereditary type might be in one or both eyes. Most retinoblastoma happening in only one eye isn't hereditary; when the illness takes place in both eyes it’s always hereditary. But, while less popular, retinoblastoma might happen in only one eye and might still be hereditary and passed on to kids.

Tests and Diagnosis

Your child's diagnosis and selection of treatment rely on the scope and location of the illness within and outside of the eye. As soon as retinoblastoma is discovered, additional exams will be carried out to ascertain the size of the tumor and if it has spread to surrounding tissue or even to other body parts.

The treatment plan considers both cures of cancer and preservation of vision or the affected eye, and consists of the following:
• Enucleation — operation to take out the eye
• Cryotherapy — making use of extreme cold to destroy cancer cells
• Photocoagulation — making use of laser light to destroy blood vessels, which feed the tumor or to heat the tumors in order that chemotherapeutic drugs will be more effective.
• External or internal beam irradiation therapy —making use of high-energy radiation from x-rays and other methods to shrink tumors and destroy cancer cells. Radiation might come from a machine outside the body (external-beam radiation therapy) or might be given by placing radioactive material into or close to the tumor (internal brachytherapy or internal plaque radiation therapy).
• Chemotherapy —making use of drugs to destroy cancer cells. One type of chemotherapy, known as chemoreduction, is used to shrink the tumors size in order that even if not curative; the reduced tumors will be much more amenable to other treatment modalities. Chemotherapy might be given systemically (through a vein, by mouth, or with injections). In kids with retinoblastoma, chemotherapy drugs can also be injected:
  • Directly into the fluid, which surrounds the spinal cord and brain (intrathecal chemotherapy).
  • Directly into the artery, which feeds the eye (intra-arterial) for local treatment, which has lesser systemic side effects.