Case series: Combined therapy may save lives in retinoblastoma

A combination of high-dose anti-cancer drugs in conjunction with radiation and autologous blood-producing stem cell transplants can successfully treat retinoblastoma in children, researchers have found.

Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, MD, and others at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., treated four pediatric patients with retinoblastoma with intensive chemotherapy and the patients’ own stem cells. The blood stem cells were harvested after two to four courses of chemotherapy.

In all cases, the bone marrow disease went into complete remission after two courses of chemotherapy; two patients survived free of disease longer than 6 years.

The study is published in the June issue of Ophthalmology.