Vision-Salvaging Silicon Oil – Hope for Eye Cancer Patients Undergoing Radiation Therapy

Patients with eye cancer are faced with a disagreeable predicament. They have to undergo therapy with complete knowledge that the surgeon’s approach to obliterating the lethal tumor using radiation might additionally forgo their vision.

Presently, UCLA scientists have made a path-breaking discovery wherein the prevalently employed substance known as silicon oil protects the eye and seems to shield eyesight among eye cancer (ocular melanoma) patients who undergo radiation therapy.

Dr. Tara McCannel, Asst. Prof. of ophthalmology and a vitreoretinal surgeon and member of Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA stated that eyesight failure is a shattering yet prevalent radiation therapy related side-effect. She pointed out that till lately, doctors laid focus on annihilating the tumor and did not deem eyesight loss as primary. The study outcomes indicate that silicon oil provides a safe means of shielding the patient’s eyesight while undergoing radiation.

Ocular melanoma is a widespread form of eye cancer striking adults and develops in the pigmented sub-retinal layers. According to the National Eye Institute, around two thousand new cancer cases crop up, approximately 7 in a million individuals, annually and the reason for it is yet unclear.

Ocular melanoma treatment involves suturing a golden plaque filled with radioactive seeds on to the white portion of the eye which is then removed in a couple of days. Even as radiation therapy obliterates cancerous cells, it additionally is causal to irreparable damage to the optic nerve fibers as well as the macula, a retinal part accountable for core vision.

Harm inflicted to the macula during radiation therapy causes weakening of blood vessels that feed the eye, thus leading to bleeding and circulation being snapped out. Despite radiation being successful in killing the tumor, eye constituents would continue to be particularly weak and susceptible to atrophy that could cause eyesight failure.

McCannel, director, ULCA Ophthalmic Oncology Center, Jules Stein Eye Inst., states that in case a patient manages to enter remission, over half of them would develop eyesight failure in the eye that was given radiation 6 months to 3 years subsequently. The possibility of going blind would augment with passage of time.

The ULCA method is performed just prior to the person’s eye being treated with radiation. The patient would firstly be undergoing an examination for measuring baseline vision prior to therapy. The doctor would then remove the vitreous gel that provides support to the inner eye form and silicon oil is then placed inside. Silicon oil has the FDA approval and is frequently employed for holding the retina in position at the time of surgical procedure for repairing detached retina.

Following removal of radiation plaque from the cancer-afflicted eye, the doctor would then flush out the oil using saline that is ultimately reinstated with innate fluids of the patient.

McCannel stated that silicon oil was found to absorb almost fifty percent of the radiation and it acted similar to a physical barrier, lowering quantity of radioactive rays reaching the rear and sides of the eye. Researchers are hopeful that silicon oil’s capability of blocking radiation would translate to improved eyesight for patients.

Silicon oil is commonly employed during operative procedure on the retina and does not get in the way of the tumor’s therapy. Transparent nature of the oil facilitates the doctor as well as the patient to easily see via it.

The ULCA group employed 3-pronged strategies for demonstrating that silicon oil was capable of absorbing fifty percent of the radiation rays. Even though further long-standing studies are necessary, the patients who were followed up had vision returning to baseline levels while not hampering tumor’s reaction to radiation treatment.