Optometry 2019

Diagnostic and treatment of eye cancer

Eye cancer is a term used to define many types of tumors that can occurs in various parts of the eye. Eye cancer occurs when healthy cells in or around the eye change and grow uncontrollably, forming a mass called a tumor. High-throughput sequencing is helping to deeply understand the cancer genome, and the mechanisms that cause tumor progression and affect treatment response. The NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) technology is used for tumor profiling and assess signalling pathways within the tumor. The gene changes that make eye cancer cells, are different from normal cells and play an important role in treating eye melanomas, lymphomas, and other eye cancers in the future. There are different types of biological therapies to extravagance eye cancers.

The NITRO trial a type of biological therapy called ranibizumab for uveal melanoma. Ranibizumab is a monoclonal antibody. It works as targeting a protein on the cancer cell called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).