Personalized Eye Cancer Treatment
Reported April 08, 2009
NEW YORK (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Too much sun can cause skin cancer, and the same thing can happen to your eyes. About 2,400 people were diagnosed with eye cancer last year. Many treatments for the disease are invasive and can damage the eye even more. One woman and her doctor have pushed eye cancer treatment to the next level.
Not long ago, Dove Karn thought she would lose most of her eyesight. She first knew something was wrong when flashes of light appeared.
“They looked like lightning and they had a circular pattern around them,” Karn told Ivanhoe.
Her doctor broke the news that changed her life: She had a tumor in the back of her eye. More bad news: Treatment could be almost as damaging as the cancer.
“He told me that even with [radiation], it would probably take care of the tumor, but it would make me have a very sick eye, and in the end, I may have to have my eye removed,” Karn said.
Traditional treatment is complete removal of the eye. Paul Finger, M.D., an ophthalmic oncologist at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in New York, N.Y., places a disk, or plaque, made of gold behind the eye to deliver radiation. Since Karn’s tumor surrounded the optic nerve — the direct line from the back of her eye to her brain –Dr. Finger had to think creatively. He developed a custom-made, slotted plaque to fit around Karn’s tumor and nerve.
“Now, there’s a slot that’s created and measured so that the optic nerve can go into the radiation device and allows you to completely encircle the tumor,” Dr. Finger told Ivanhoe.
The new invention was named Finger’s slotted plaque after its creator. For Karn, the device was more valuable than gold — it was a means of getting life-saving therapy.
“Ever since my first radiation, the tumor has shrunk and the prognosis has been fabulous,” Karn said.
She has a small blind spot, but she’s back soaking up the sights and sounds of her favorite place.
Thanks to the creation of super-sized plaques for large tumors and Dr. Finger’s slotted plaques, fewer than 8 percent of patients with the most common type of primary eye cancer require removal of the eye. The plaques stay in the eye for about a week.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Paul T. Finger, MD
Director, Ocular Tumor Service
The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary
310 East 14th St.
New York, NY 10003
(212) 832-8170