Eye Cancer

Epidemiology: Globally eye cancer has very low incidence rates [1]; over all incidence of eye cancer is less than 1% with 850 new cases per year. For the year 2020, the estimated number of new cases in the United States were 3400 cases (males: 1890 cases; females: 1510 cases) and the estimated mortality was 390 deaths (males: 210 deaths; females: 180 deaths). Eye cancer was slightly more predominant in males (53%) when compared to the females (47%). Based on the anatomic site, retinoblastoma and uveal melanoma are the most frequent types of eye cancer [2]. Retinoblastoma contributes to nearly 4% of all the pediatric cancers [3]. Incidence rate in children was 1 in 15,000–18,000 per year worldwide [3]. Global incidence of the retinoblastoma is 9000 new cases per year [4]. Each year, about 300 new retinoblastoma cases are reported in the United States [3]. The incidence of retinoblastoma is equal in boys and girls. The 5-year survival rate of retinoblastoma was 96% in children [3]. For retinoblastoma, the median age of diagnosis was 15 and 24 months for hereditary and sporadic forms, respectively [3]. The incidence rate was higher in the regions of Southeast Asia and South America [3]. The other common type of intraocular cancer is Uveal melanoma (UM), which is usually seen in adults [2]. Uveal melanoma occurs in the uveal tract accounting to 85% of all ocular melanomas [5]. The incidence rate was 4.3% in the United States (male: 4.9%; female: 3.7%) [5]. The incidence rate differs for different ethnic groups, mostly occurring in non-Hispanic whites (6.02%) followed by Hispanics (1.67%), Asians (0.38%), and Afro-Americans (0.31%) [5]. The median age of Uveal melanoma (UM) diagnosis in the US and Europe is 59–62 years [6]. The mean age-adjusted annual incidence of UM is 5.1 cases per million [6]. UM has an annual incidence of 5 per million; 650 new cases of UM were diagnosed and treated every year [7]. In the age group of above 65 years, UM was more common in males and whites when compared to females and blacks, respectively [2].