Treatment
Treatment of retinoblastoma varies from country to country. The priority is to preserve the life of the child, then to preserve vision, and then to minimize complications or side effects of treatment. The exact course of treatment will depend on the individual case and will be decided by the ophthalmologist in discussion with the paediatric oncologist.
Many treatment options exist, including chemotherapy (administered locally via a thin catheter threaded through the groin, through the aorta and the neck, into the optic vessels), cryotherapy, radioactive plaques, laser therapy, external beam radiotherapy and surgical removal of the eyeball. Any combinations of these treatments may be adopted.
In recent years, there has been an effort to find alternatives to enucleation and radiation therapy.
Read more about this topic: Retinoblastoma
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“Narcissist: psychoanalytic term for the person who loves himself more than his analyst; considered to be the manifestation of a dire mental disease whose successful treatment depends on the patient learning to love the analyst more and himself less.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“The treatment of the incident of the assault upon the sailors of the Baltimore is so conciliatory and friendly that I am of the opinion that there is a good prospect that the differences growing out of that serious affair can now be adjusted upon terms satisfactory to this Government by the usual methods and without special powers from Congress.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“If the study of all these sciences, which we have enumerated, should ever bring us to their mutual association and relationship, and teach us the nature of the ties which bind them together, I believe that the diligent treatment of them will forward the objects which we have in view, and that the labor, which otherwise would be fruitless, will be well bestowed.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)