Revolutionary Care Tailored to Your Child’s Needs
Hearing that your child has retinoblastoma can be life-changing, but so can treatment.
Our team of experienced, compassionate oncologists, ophthalmologists, interventional radiologists and surgeons use the latest technology and most advanced techniques to treat your child’s eye cancer. Our goal is to limit side effects and preserve the eye whenever possible. We want to help your child live a healthy, full life.
Treatments We Offer
Every child’s story is unique. We tailor treatment plans to your child’s specific needs, according to the retinoblastoma stage and location of the tumor.
Common treatment includes chemotherapy and our ocular oncologist can add therapies like laser therapy, cryotherapy and intravitreal injections. We also offer forms of radiation therapy, including photon, proton beam and brachytherapy, for more resistant tumors.
Our retinoblastoma program is one of only a few medical facilities in the country to offer progressive therapies like transcatheter selective intraophthalmic-artery chemotherapy and intravitreal chemotherapy. These sophisticated techniques are highly targeted to achieve the best results while preserving as much vision as possible.
Your child’s doctors will determine the best approach to care based on the specific type, size and location of the tumor. Every patient is carefully discussed among a multidisciplinary team of pediatric medical oncologists, ocular oncologists (doctors who specialize in diagnosing and treating eye tumors) and interventionalists (neurosurgeons) to optimize the care plan. Treatment may include one or more of these options:
- Chemotherapy. A drug treatment to kill fast-growing cells in the body.
- Conventional (systemic) chemotherapy (delivered to the whole body, given intravenously)
- Intravitreal (local injection) chemotherapy (delivered directly into the fluid space of the eye)
- Transcatheter selective intraophthalmic-artery ( intraarterial) chemotherapy (delivered directly to the arteries behind the eye )
- Local or adjunct therapy. Targeted treatment by ocular oncologist used to shrink small tumors not in the center of the eye.
- Cryotherapy (cold therapy)
- Thermotherapy or laser therapy (heat therapy)
- Radiation. Beams of energy used to kill cancer cells.
- Photon therapy (traditional radiation)
- Proton therapy (more precise radiation delivery)
- Radioactive plaque therapy/brachytherapy (radiation requiring temporary placement of radioactive plaques to eyes )
- Surgery. Used when the eye cannot be saved.
- Enucleation (eye removal with implant placement for future ocular prosthetic)
- Ocular prosthesis (prosthetic eye)
After Treatment
Following treatment, a pediatric ophthalmologist will monitor your child closely for visual impairment and function. Because retinoblastoma is a form of eye cancer, our Oncology Survivorship program will also be involved in your child’s post-treatment care.
When the Eye Cannot Be Saved
In some cases, your child’s eye cannot be saved and their safety is at risk. Common reasons include:
- The disease doesn’t respond to treatment.
- The treatment has unacceptable side effects.
- The disease has progressed and invaded the optic nerve and choroid.
Services
At Cincinnati Children’s, we treat the whole child—not just their disease—because your child is more than just a diagnosis.
As part of our retinoblastoma program, we offer comprehensive services to help our young patients cope with a cancer diagnosis, manage school work while in the hospital and navigate life outside the hospital.
To save you time and reduce stress and anxiety, we also have a dedicated retinoblastoma care coordinator to help you communicate with doctors and schedule tests, treatments and other appointments.
