Ghana is another country claimed by the Eye Cancer Foundation! Recently, Dr. Akosua Boateng finished her training sponsored by The Eye Cancer Foundation (http://eyecancercure.com). She notes, “I have always been interested in ocular pathology, but had never truly had the opportunity to nurture the interest due to a lack of resources in my home country.” However, she was awarded the opportunity to train in ophthalmic pathology with an emphasis on retinoblastoma at the Beijing Children’s Hospital due to a joint effort of Dr. Paul Finger of The Eye Cancer Foundation and Dr. Brenda Gallie of the University Health Network, Princess Margaret Cancer Center of Toronto. 

Dr. Boateng was determined to learn about the clinical presentation, examination, and treatment for many ocular cancers as well as be able to recognize their pathology on slides under the microscope.  Her training 

was split between a clinic with Dr. Jeffrey Zhang, retinoblastoma care with Dr. John Zhao and the pathology department with Dr. Nan Zhang. During clinic days, Dr. Boateng learned about many eye diseases including myopia, congenital anophthalmia and others. For the first time, she learned how to perform intraocular photography with the Retcam Imaging System. For retinoblastoma care, Dr. Boateng was able to examine the fundus of both old, treated  and new cases. She took part in discussions of the children’s treatment options. She spent time in the operating theatre shadowing surgeries, such as laser treatment, chemotherapy and enucleation. She learned to differentiate between retinoblastoma and Coat’s Disease. In the pathology department, first she learned more about the anatomy of the eye, identified histologic high-risk factors for retinoblastoma, and how to stage cases according to the AJCC 8th Edition Manual. She says it was a “great learning experience.”. 

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Boateng was forced to abruptly end her training months prior to completion. Thus, she would like to return to learn more about adult ocular pathology as it would be helpful back in Ghana. However, when Dr. Boateng returned to her parent hospital in Ghana, she feels so much more confident in dealing with ocular pathology and retinoblastoma. She is grateful to Drs. Finger and Gallie as well as The Eye Cancer Foundation for allowing her intensive training to happen! 

Retinoblastoma is the most common intraocular cancer in children. One out of 15,000 children suffer from this malignancy. Typically, parents notice that one or both pupils turn white and their child has difficulty seeing.  In 2017, a university in New Delhi, India initiated a long-term project to detect that white eye reflex in children. It was spearheaded by Nirmala Muralidhar, the project coordinator of Janki Devi Memorial College, under the direction of Dr. Vikas Menon, their consultant ocular oncologist. What began as a student faculty project, in November 2017, it transformed into a larger initiative where a Non Governmental Organization (NGO), ophthalmologists, ocular oncologists from specialty eye cancer centers collaborated to create awareness for early detection of retinoblastoma cancer.  

The long-term goals of this project included sensitizing families to the appearance of the white eye reflex, stirring awareness amongst doctors about retinoblastoma and prompting parents to be aware of their children’s eye health. Using photography as a tool for early detection, they created awareness of children with special needs who suffer from retinoblastoma. Though these objectives were slowly accomplished over 3 years, there were many activities, learning opportunities, and research studies presented to educate the public. The Strides for Retinoblastoma was most profound and heartfelt, as an RB survivor led a walk with over 200 people during World Cancer Day on February 4, 2018. 

While many research studies are able to spread awareness of retinoblastoma within the healthcare professional world, this initiative is unique as its audience was varied. It included parents, children and healthcare workers. All were involved in this coordinated campaign to save both vision and life.. The Eye Cancer Foundation continues to be determined to create awareness of retinoblastoma, to supply trained eye cancer specialists to underserved communities and is more than proud to announce the success of the JDMC awareness campaign. 

For more information contact  Dr. Puneet Jain at pjain@eyecancer.com

Retinoblastoma Screening in Babies

Public Awareness Campaign 

Eye Checkups

Did you know…

…that in addition to the training of eye doctors from around the world, The Eye Cancer Foundation needs to equip them with essential basic eye cancer care equipment. Especially during COVID-19, eye cancer specialists in underserved countries are having difficulty treating their patients with basic equipment designed to help pinpoint the disease. Without the proper equipment, these patients will lose their vision, partially or completely or required eye removal “enucleation.”  Help us equip these eye cancer specialists with essential items for their practices. Thankfully, Amazon makes this very easy.  Just go to the ECF Amazon page and select an item for as little as $6.99.  To get to the right Amazon page, just click here. Send it as a gift or write our Foundation’s Director of Development (henry@eyecancercure.com) to let us know what you have donated and that it will be coming. You can select from any of the equipment listed and donate as many as you want. Be assured, it will be used for eye cancer patients around the world. No matter what you donate, you will empower an eye doctor somewhere else in the world to save sight and save lives. Thank you, in advance, for helping us with this important work.

In 2019, The Eye Cancer Foundation’s Fellow, Dr. Ankit Tomar, successfully presented two research projects at medical conferences in San Francisco, USA. To eye cancer specialists and ophthalmic pathologists at the AAOOP and American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meetings, Dr Tomar presented on Ciliary Body Leiomyoma: Clinicopathologic Correlation in 3 Cases. In his series, Dr. Tomar shows how ciliary body leiomyomas can be indistinguishable  from ciliary body melanoma. Only special pathology testing of tumor tissue samples are needed to separate these clinical dopplegangers.  

Dr. Tomar also presented on Dr. Finger’s well-known innovation, the ophthalmic palladium-103 plaque brachytherapy. In this study, he explored the safety and tolerability of this method for patients with multifocal iris melanoma. This study was entitled Palladium-103 Plaque Therapy for Multifocal Iris Melanoma: Radiation of the Entire Anterior Segment. Drs. Finger and Tomar discovered this method was highly effective for  this ocular cancer treatment since 1990! In this series, plaque radiation therapy achieved 100% local control and eye retention! This is remarkable because eyes with diffuse iris melanoma are commonly removed (enucleated).

The Eye Cancer Foundation is proud to support research that improves methods of diagnosis and treatment for eye cancer. Our fellows earn grants to present ECF research and learn about cutting edge technology and techniques. By spreading knowledge of ECF studies and findings, The Eye Cancer Foundation and its fellows like Dr. Ankit Tomar spread hope for those who would otherwise lose both sight and life. 

Dr. Finger (left) and Dr. Tomar (right)

Dr. Tomar’s presentation poster on Ciliary Body Leiomyoma: Clinicopathologic Correlation in 3 Cases.

Dr. Tomar’s presentation poster on Palladium-103 Plaque Therapy for Multifocal Iris Melanoma: Radiation of the Entire Anterior Segment.

This year, 2019, is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the American Joint Committee on Cancer, the AJCC. This committee was founded in 1959 by leaders of the American College of Surgeons in order to support patients by creating a staging system for cancer. The founders had the foresight as well as the influence to develop a cancer classification system based on the tumor, nodal status, and metastatic findings (TNM). What is interesting is that these features were first used by a French surgeon in the 1940s to classify breast cancer! They later became the standard international language for the staging system locked in place today by the AJCC for the needs of US physicians and hospitals. 

As the decades went by, the AJCC collaborated with the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) to create a standardized cancer language for the world. Through the hard work of numerous physicians dedicated to improving cancer mortality, a worldwide TNM system was achieved in 1987. Since 1997, AJCC has published periodic improvements to the TNM system. 

In 2005, our very own Dr. Finger was selected to join the American Joint Committee on Cancer: Section on Ophthalmic Oncology! Then, 4 years later he was elected Chair, for Ophthalmic Oncology. Dr. Finger has participated in the AJCC for over 14 years. His work with the AJCC includes developing the AJCC Ophthalmic Oncology Task Force of over 50 eye cancer specialists from 13 countries on 6 continents. Dr. Finger put together specialty committees to develop a useful classifications to standardize how doctors describe their patients tumors and patterns of metastatic disease. For example, in 2014 the American Brachytherapy Society’s Ophthalmic Oncology Task Force adopted the AJCC staging rules for intraocular melanoma! 

Dr. Fingers’ hard work and dedication is further epitomized by his creation of The Eye Cancer Foundation, a community that aims to provide support to patients with ocular cancers, promote the education of the diagnosis and treatment of eye cancers, and train eye cancer specialists around the world. Numerous physicians from underserved and unserved countries have been trained under the sponsorship of the ECF and gone on to use their newfound knowledge to benefit patients in their home countries. 

The ECF will never stop saving lives and saving sight.

Click here to make a donation to the foundation and save the life of a child suffering from retinoblastoma!