All about eye cancer: causes and treatment

  All about eye cancer: causes and treatment
Posted on 26 November 2013. Tags: bittelman, doctor bittelman, doctor Ricardo Bittelman, visual disease, glaucoma, bittelman ophthalmologist, ricardo bittelman, vision health, visual health
All about eye cancer: causes and treatment

Although it is a rare disease, the various types of eye cancer are quite delicate as they spread rapidly to other areas of the body. However, the latest medical advances are achieving better results in vision with treatments.

The melanomas of the uvea consist of the most common primary malignant visualers tumors in Caucasian and light-eyed people. This segment of the population is eight times more likely to suffer from this cancer, compared to the dark ones, and three times more likely than Asians.

This disease affects people between 50 and 60 years old, mainly men. However, in the United States cases have been diagnosed in children under 20 years of age. Family history and prolonged exposure to the sun are also factors that influence the development of the pathology.

The first stage of uveal melanoma is asymptomatic. However, when the tumor grows, distortion of the pupil occurs, blurred vision, reduction of visual acuity due to secondary detachment of the retina and glaucoma.

Also, eye cancer can be deadly, as it tends to spread to vital organs such as the lungs or liver.

Treatment for eye cancer

Scott Oliver, an academic at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Colorado, in the United States, discovered an innovative method to treat eye cancer, which could be beneficial for patients with this condition.

The research was published in the specialized scientific journal "Archives of Ophtalmology", where the author of the work explains in detail this method based on the injection of silicone oil into the eyeball to take care of it in 55% of the harmful radiation used for the treatment of the disease. This is applied to prevent the side effect of vision loss.

As the most used technique to combat this disease is radiation therapy, Oliver says that through the silicone oil you can prevent the death of visual cells and that permanent blindness does not occur