Hyderabad: A recent study conducted by the doctors at the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) found that retinoblastoma (RB), an eye cancer that usually affects children, is curable if detected and treated at an early stage.
The disease, in which a cancerous tumour develops in the retina, usually affects children aged two or younger and is the leading cause of death from eye cancer in children, according to the study.
In severe cases, the tumour spreads beyond the eye into surrounding structures, particularly the optic nerve. The advanced form is known as ‘retinoblastoma with extraocular extension’ (RB-EOE).
The study, ‘Retinoblastoma with and without Extraocular Tumour Extension’, was published in the US journal Ophthalmology Science and was conducted as part of the Global Retinoblastoma Study Group. The three-year data, collected from 2017 to 2020, includes a sample of 3,435 children affected by retinoblastoma from around the world, including 493 cases from India and 109 from Hyderabad. Of the 3,435 children, as many as 319 (9.3%) were in the advanced stage, RB-EOE.
Dr Swathi Kaliki, head of the Eyesight Universal Institute for Eye Cancer at LVPEI and one of the authors of the paper, stressed that early screening for eye cancer and a multimodal treatment strategy are important to reduce the risk of death in cases of RB-EOE. “Treatment includes surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. We found that if all three are not administered, it reduces the chances of saving a life,” she told TOI.
The study also found that the vast majority (around 92 per cent) of children with RB-EOE live in low-income countries such as Ethiopia, Mali and Tanzania, and lower-middle-income countries such as Bangladesh, India, the Philippines and others, due to a lack of appropriate treatment.
According to the study, while around 99 per cent of children with retinoblastoma survive in high-income countries such as the US and Europe, around 43-56 per cent of children with the cancer die in low-income countries due to delayed or no treatment.
“While the tri-modality treatment is available in India, we have found that unfortunately many low- and other lower-middle-income countries are unable to provide the comprehensive tri-modality care needed to manage RB-EOE, making the management of such cases difficult. In some of these countries, surgery is the only treatment available. In high-income countries, early diagnosis leads to child survival. Although ongoing efforts are aimed at detecting retinoblastoma at earlier stages, it is equally important that government health authorities find ways to ensure that all treatment options are available to patients with advanced retinoblastoma,” Dr Kaliki added.
