retinoblastoma

Retinoblastoma is a childhood cancer arising from immature cells in one or both eyes. This cancer can metastasize to the brain, central nervous system and the bones in some cases. It usually occurs in younger children, but can occur at any age. 90% of patients have no family history of this disease. It is curable if caught early enough, but 87% of children with this disease die. Common signs of this disease is a white glow in the pupil in low lighting. White pupil in a color photo, as seen in the picture on the top, or crossed or misaligned eyes. Retinoblastoma can be treated by removing the affected eye before the cancer spreads, chemotherapy, or radiation beam treatments. The image on top is from http://www.retinoblastoma.net/whatisrb.html. The image on the bottom is a CT scan of a patient with retinoblastoma from http://www.emedicine.com/oph/topic346.htm.