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Challenges remain in retinoblastoma management
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Preserving the eye and maintaining vision remain challenges for ophthalmologists treating children with retinoblastoma, despite improvements in the management of the disease in the past decade, according to a recent report. With modern techniques, more than 95% of children in the United States are cured, said Carol L. Shields, MD, and colleagues, in an overview of retinoblastoma management in Retina.
Dr. Shields and co-authors noted that managing retinoblastoma in the United States is trending away from enucleation and external beam radiotherapy and toward focal conservative treatments, mainly involving primary chemoreduction in conjunction with thermotherapy and cryotherapy. The authors attributed the attitude change to increased knowledge about the risks of external beam radiotherapy and earlier detection of the disease.
Enucleation is still the preferred treatment method when the retinoblastoma fills most of the eye, the researchers noted.
External beam radiotherapy and enucleation are often employed in addition to chemoreduction in the most advanced stages of the disease, mainly to save the child’s life.
“A collaborative prospective study in North America is currently under way to further study the benefits and risks of chemoreduction for minimal, moderate and advanced retinoblastoma,” the authors said in the December issue.