A Leader in Retinoblastoma Research
As part of the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute, our retinoblastoma researchers study cancer cells to understand how the disease develops and spreads and are finding targets for new anticancer drugs to cure children.
Our physicians and researchers are involved in many clinical research studies, all with the same goal to improve the outcome and quality of life for children with retinoblastoma. Some of these studies are sponsored by Cincinnati Children’s, and some are offered at our site through national organizations like the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) and the National Cancer Institute Pediatric Phase I Consortium.
Cincinnati Children’s is a lead site for national COG research studies designed to identify novel therapies for retinoblastoma and to better understand what causes the disease. Our leadership in these groups gives you early access to new anticancer therapies.
Areas of research include:
- Transcatheter selective intraophthalmic-artery chemotherapy, which delivers chemotherapy directly to the arteries behind the eye
- Intravitreal-directed chemotherapy, delivering chemotherapy directly into the fluid space of the eye
- Subtenon-directed chemotherapy, in which chemotherapy drugs are injected through the membrane covering the muscles and nerves at the back of the eyeball
- Intravenous chemotherapy, which injects chemotherapy into the bloodstream
- Targeted anticancer agents
- Conformal radiation techniques, which deliver radiation that conforms to the tumor’s shape
- Tests for sharpness of vision and the quality of the visual neural pathway
- Eye-sparing techniques
National Referral Center
Cincinnati Children’s is a major referral center for clinical care and research for the Children’s Oncology Group, the National Cancer Institute’s new Pediatric Phase I Consortium and other national cancer research consortiums.
