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Updated: Nov 20 2015

Retinoblastoma

Snap Shot
  • A 3-year-old child presents strabismus. His mother notes that sometimes of family photographs it appears that one eye is white while the other is red.
Introduction
  • Definition
    • malignancy of the retina of the eye
    • often presents in children less than 3 years of age
  • Genetics
    • Rb is a tumor suppressor gene located on chromosome 13
    • loss of heterozygosity
      • both alleles must be deleted/mutated before the development of cancer and expression of disease ("two-hit hypothesis")
        • as opposed to oncogenes which require just one mutation
      • mutation in a tumor suppressor gene leads to increased cancer risk
      • inhertied loss of Rb protein results in bilateral disease
    • mechanism
      • regulates cell growth and repair damage
        • see Tumor suppressor gene topic 
        • see Cell cycle topic 
    • associations
      • familial retinoblastoma is a predisposing factor to the development of osteosarcoma
Presentation
  • Symptoms
    • visual loss
  • Physical exam
    • leukocoria
      • absence of red-light reflex
    • unilateral exophthalmos
    • strabismus
Evaluation
  • Referral to opthamologist if seen in general pediatric screening
Treatment
  • Surgical
    • enucleation of the eye
Private Note