Support cure for Eye Cancer Patients

Retinoblastoma, a life-threatening eye cancer in very young children, zero months to 3 years of age. Each year, more than 1500 new cases are diagnosed in India. 75% of the children have retinoblastoma in one eye. There is treatment for retinoblastoma and it is available in India.

The eye cancer specialist treats retinoblastoma by chemo-reduction, focal therapy and plaque brachytherapy, focusing on saving the child’s life, salvaging the eye ball and protecting the vision.

Treatment ensures 95% of the children are saved from death and 85% have their eye ball intact and 75% have their vision protected.

The mission of L V Prasad Eye Institute is to be a centre of excellence in Eye care services, basic and clinical research into eye diseases and vision-threatening conditions, training, product development, and rehabilitation for those with incurable visual disability, with a focus on extending equitable and efficient Eyecare to underserved populations in the developing world.

The main objective of the Operation Eyesight Universal Institute for Eye Cancer at LVPEI is:

a) To achieve life salvage: So that all may live

b) To achieve eye salvage: So that they can keep their eye's

c) To achieve vision salvage: So that all may see.

Depending on the stage of Eye Cancer the treatment is planned which includes various sessions of Chemotherapy given to children under anesthesia (EUA), Cryotherapy/TTT is planned based on the findings. The entire procedure for treating eye cancer varies from a minimum of 6 weeks to one year based on the level of cancer stage.

Each month over 75 children under go treatment these are children who are from economically underprivileged families. The cost for each EUA is about 4100/- considering an average of 5 sessions it cost about Rs.20,500 towards treatment for each child. We seek support for treatment of 50 children.