Ongoing Study Shows That Endovascular Therapy is Associated With High Cure Rate for Childhood ...( Same Day Procedure...),Health

Same Day Procedure May Transform Treatment Approach to Retinoblastoma

BOCA RATON, Fla., July 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Expanded results of a study conducted on children with eye cancer (retinoblastoma) shows that chemotherapy delivered through endovascular (through the vessel) means not only successfully cures the cancer in a majority of cases, but achieves this cure with preserved vision. Study outcomes were presented this week at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS) 6th Annual Meeting in Boca Raton, FL by lead author Pierre Gobin, Professor of Radiology in Neurosurgery and Neurology at the Weill Cornell Medical Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.

"This is an exciting development in the neurointerventional community, as results prove that chemotherapy delivered through endovascular techniques is a powerful tool in addressing the most severe forms of retinoblastoma," says Gobin, who says that the study is the product of teamwork between New York Presbyterian Hospital and the Eye Cancer Center of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, with support from David Abramson, M.D., Brian Marr, M.D., Ira Dunkel, M.D. And Scott Brodie, M.D.

Retinoblastoma, the seventh most common pediatric cancer, is a malignant eye tumor in children that arises in cells in the developing retina. Typically, this cancer is associated with a late diagnosis as one of the only symptoms, a white pupil replacing the normal black, presents when the tumor occupies over one-third of the eye. Conventional therapy for this cancer includes laser treatment, as well as techniques that utilize extreme cold to freeze and destroy abnormal cells or deliver radioactive substances in timed intervals to kill the tumor. If these treatments fail, physicians resort to intravenous chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Despite this wide array of treatment options
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