Table of Contents
What Is Eye Cancer?
Eye cancer can refer to any cancer that starts in the eye. Cancer starts when cells begin to grow out of control.
The most common type of eye cancer is melanoma. But there are other types of cancer that affect different kinds of cells in the eye.
Where eye cancers start
The eye has 3 major parts:
• the eyeball (globe) that is mostly filled with a jelly-like material called vitreous humor and has 3 main layers (the sclera, the uvea, and the retina)
• the orbit (the tissues surrounding the eyeball)
• the adnexal (accessory) structures such as the eyelids and tear glands.
Different types of cancer start in each of these areas.
What Causes Eye Cancer?
The exact cause of most eye cancers is not known. But scientists have found that the disease is linked with some other conditions, which are described in Risk Factors for Eye Cancer. A great deal of research is being done to learn more about the causes.
Scientists are learning how certain changes in the DNA inside cells can cause the cells to become cancer. Cancers can be caused by DNA changes that turn on oncogenes or turn off tumor suppressor genes.
Some people with cancer have DNA changes they inherited from a parent that increase their risk for the disease
Risk Factors for Eye Cancer
A risk factor is anything that increases your chance of getting a disease such as cancer. Different cancers have different risk factors. Some risk factors, like smoking, can be changed. Others, like a person’s age or family history, can’t be changed.
But having a known risk factor, or even several risk factors, does not mean that you will get the disease. And many people who get the disease may have few or no known risk factors.
Race/ethnicity – The risk of eye melanoma is much higher in whites than in African Americans, Hispanics or Asian Americans.
Eye color – People with light colored eyes are somewhat more likely to develop uveal melanoma of the eye than are people with darker eye and skin color.
Age and gender – Eye melanomas can occur at any age, but the risk goes up as people get older. Eye melanoma is slightly more common in men than in women.
Certain inherited conditions
– People with dysplastic nevus syndrome, who have many abnormal moles on the skin, are at increased risk of skin melanoma. They also seem to have a higher risk of developing melanoma of the eye.
People with abnormal brown spots on the uvea (known as oculodermal melanocytosis or nevus of Ota) also have an increased risk of developing uveal eye melanoma.
Moles – Different types of moles (nevi) in the eye or on the skin have been associated with an increased risk of uveal eye melanoma. In the eye, these include choroidal, giant choroidal, and iris nevi; on the skin, atypical nevi, common nevi of the skin, and freckles. An eye condition, known as primary acquired melanosis (PAM), where the melanocytes in the eye grow too much, is a risk factor for conjunctival melanoma.
Family history – Uveal eye melanomas can run in some families, but this is very rare and the genetic reasons for this are still being investigated.
• Sun exposure – Too much sun exposure or exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays (either from the sun or tanning beds) raises risk of skin melanomas. This is true especially in Caucasians and whites. There is no evidence however that this is true for eye melanomas but concerns that similar association might be true for eye melanomas.
• Occupational hazards – Workers like farmers, fishermen, welders, or chemical and laundry workers have a greater risk of getting eye melanomas.
How Is Eye Cancer Treated?
Depending on the type and stage of the cancer and other factors, treatment options for eye cancer might include:
Surgery for Eye Cancer
Radiation Therapy for Eye Cancer
Laser Therapy for Eye Cancer
Chemotherapy for Eye Cancer
Targeted Drugs and Immunotherapy for Eye Cancer