April 22, 2010 
Radioactive discs that are implanted in the eye of a child with a rare form of cancer, retinoblastoma, could save the eye and vision of a child…
Only a handful of American doctors perform a new method for treating a rare form of cancer, reinoblastoma, when it comes to children. One of them is a professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences in School of Medicine, at the University of Washington William Harbour. He decided for a method of implanting a tiny disk that is left in the eye for three days, and then taken out in the second operation.
Usually the treatment of retinoblastoma involves chemotherapy, which is very difficult for the youngsters, then laser and freezing treatments that remove the remaining parts of the tumor, experts say.
“Sometimes, a tumor that does not respond to chemotherapy or is too large for the treatment of laser and freezing can be found. Then we can apply the treatment with disc – it gives us the ability with which we can save the eyes of small children,” said professor Harbour.
Retinoblastom is a fast-progressive tumor that develops in the cells of the retina. This malignant disease affects approximately one in 20,000 children, and 40 percent of patients develop tumors in both eyes. In developed countries retinoblastoma has one of the greatest rate of healing of all malignant tumors of childhood (95-98 percent), with survival of over 90 percent because it reacts well to treatment.
Taken from: www.ordinacija.hr Author: K. Horvath