When you look into your young child or toddler’s eyes do they seem to be cross eyed and/or does one appear to have a white pupil? Then have your child’s eyes checked right away for retinoblastoma, which is a rare, yet most common, type of eye cancer in children.
Because this cancer causes a malignant tumor of the retina, leukocoria, med term for white pupil, and strabismus, med term for cross eyed, are two primary symptoms for retinoblastoma. The white eye is caused by the off-color reflection from the retina. And strabismus symptom results because of a vision problem.
Cross eyed may be the only noticeable symptom until a flash picture is taken of your child’s eyes. Normally, the pupil of the eyes will look red in the photograph. But under certain light conditions, retinoblastoma causes the red pupil to give off a white eye appearance instead.
Other symptoms retinoblastoma may cause beyond leukocoria and strabismus are:
- eye pain
- proptosis
- chemosis
- irritated eye
- eye redness
- enlarged pupil
This eye cancer typically manifests in one eye with one tumor in under age 5 children. However, retinoblastoma can present in adults, cause multiple tumors or be in both eyes.
The root cause of retinoblastoma is retinoblasts gone wild. Retinoblasts are immature retinal cells. During the early stage of retinal development, retinoblasts divide until the retina is full of them. Under healthy eye conditions, they’ll stop dividing and mature into retinal cells. With this form of eye cancer, a gene mutation or a missing gene results in a failure to stop the division and retinoblast growth continues well beyond what’s needed. And this gene issue can be inherited or arise spontaneously.
If retinoblastoma is not treated, white pupil and cross eyed can progress into much more serious symptoms, like glaucoma and vision loss. Ideally, leukocoria and strasbismus symptoms are spotted and retinoblastoma is treated before this eye cancer can spread to your lymphatic system and on around to other organs, causing cancer of the liver, bones and bone marrow.
As with any cancer, the goal of treatment is to cure your eye cancer and with this cancer in particular prevent blindness. Treatment of retinoblastoma will vary depending on numerous factors and may include:
- surgery
- cryotherapy
- laser therapy
- chemotherapy
- brachytherapy
- thermotherapy
- radiation therapy
The outcome is best when retinoblastoma treatment is initiated in the early stages of this eye cancer. So, if you even suspect white pupil leukocoria or strabismus cross eyed symptoms, have you pediatric health care professional look into your child’s eyes ASAP.