Eye cancer is one of the severe problems that can affect your eyes and cause visual impairment. It is a condition that affects your eye health and your overall health over a period of time. Although eye cancer is a relatively rare condition, it cannot be completely ruled out while discussing eye-related problems.

What Is Eye Cancer?

Eye cancer starts in the eye and affects the eye and its surrounding structures. Depending on where the cancer starts, eye cancer can be classified into intraocular, orbital, and adnexal. The most common and widely diagnosed cancer is intraocular cancer which starts inside the eyeball. Melanoma and lymphoma are two of the most common intraocular cancers in adults, whereas retinoblastoma is a common eye cancer seen in children.

Orbital eye cancer occurs when cancer starts in orbit or the tissues surrounding the eye, while adnexal cancer occurs in the accessory structures like the eyelids or the tear glands. It is important to understand the types of eye cancer because its severity plays a significant role in treating cancer.

What happens if you have Eye cancer?

Now that we know what eye cancer is, the one question that must be coming to your mind is, what happens if you have eye cancer? Based on previous studies, the survival rate of people diagnosed with eye cancer is pretty good if the cancer is diagnosed and treated at an early stage. The severity of cancer and how you respond to the treatment will affect your survival rate after being diagnosed with eye cancer. Also, it is very common that eye cancer may eventually lead to complete vision loss if it affects the critical parts of the eye.

What are the signs of eye cancer?

The signs and symptoms of eye cancer aren’t always obvious, which might make it hard to detect in the early stages. However, the commonly observed signs and symptoms of eye cancer are as follows:

• Shadows or flashy lights in the field of vision
• A lump on the eyelid or eye that is growing in size
• Sudden partial or complete loss of vision
• The dark patch in the eye that is increasing in size
• Bulging of one eye
• Blurry or cloudy vision
• Pain in or around the eye

Different eye cancer causes 

When talking about eye cancer causes, you need to know that the exact cause of eye cancer is not known. However, it has been linked with some other conditions that are considered to be the risk factors for eye cancer. Some of these risk factors are as follows:

• Light-colored eyes are more likely to develop uveal melanoma
• The risk of eye cancer increases with age
• Hereditary conditions like dysplastic nevus syndrome can put the person at a higher risk of developing eye cancer
• Family history of melanomas is another risk factor that should not be ignored

Different eye cancer treatments 

‘Is eye cancer curable?’ might be another question that comes to your mind. The answer to this entirely depends on the type, location, and stage of cancer and also on how your body receives the treatment. The options available for eye cancer treatment are chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. The treatment line to go for depends on the location and type of eye cancer the patient is suffering from.

About the author- Dr. Ritika Sachdev, Additional Director at Center For Sight.