Types of cancer in children are often different from adult cancer, usually the symptoms of cancer in children and infants have nothing to do with lifestyle.
Cancers are the leading cause of death for Toddlers and young children worldwide.
In this article, among all the common cancers in children and toddlers, we will discuss the most common eye cancer in toddlers, namely retinoblastoma and its symptoms.
Parents should be aware of the symptoms of eye cancer in children because most children with eye cancer (retinoblastoma) are in good health.
Retina: means from the retina
Belfast: means cell in early development
Oma: means a group of cells; or a tumor
what you will read next :
Everything about eye tumors in children
Retinoblastoma, or Glioma Retina, is the most common ocular malignancy in toddlers.
Most people with this eye tumor are infants, toddlers, and young children, and sometimes even fetuses.
This tumor is the most common of all cancers with genetic and hereditary disorders.
The growth and development of the eyes begins inside the uterus.
Eye cancer symptoms in toddlers
Parents should be aware of the signs and symptoms of common pediatric ocular tumors:
- Leukocoria or white pupil:
A pupil looks white; instead of the normal black.
Fifty to sixty percent of children with retinoblastoma have this symptom.
One of the most common symptoms of an eye tumor in children is the observation of a cat eye or white reflex when light is shining into a child’s eye.
Normally, when the bright light like a camera flash shines into the eye, the pupil should look red because of the blood vessels behind the pupil hole, but in children with retinoblastoma eye cancer, this reaction will be white or pink.
Today, ninety-four percent of pediatricians examine a child’s eye for possible leukorrhea at each visit.
Sometimes the parents themselves get worried when they are photographing their child, especially in low light, and in several different photos they see the unusual eye of the child in the photo and take the child to the doctor for examination.
- Inflammation and redness of the eyes:
A red and / or painful looking eye
This is not a specific symptom and occurs in many viral and allergy colds.
Seventy percent of children with retinoblastoma have this symptom.
- poor vision
- An enlarged pupil:
Sometimes the size of these large pupils does not decrease even when exposed to strong light.
- different colored irises
- Crossed-eye or Strabismus:
In twenty percent of cases it is the first sign of eye cancer and retinoblastoma in children.
In pediatric ocular tumors and retinoblastoma, strabismus occurs quite suddenly and all at once That is, before that, the eyes were balanced.
Other causes of eye tumors in young children
- Lazy eyes
- Occasionally, in some children and toddlers, there is a continuous transverse movement of the colored part of the eye between the nose and ears.
This symptom is less common than the other symptoms mentioned.
- Eye irritation
- Bleeding eyes
Are other causes of eye tumors in young children.
Pediatric eye tumors can affect only one eye but sometimes it occurs in both eyes.
Early diagnosis and prompt initiation of treatment will improve the individual.