Treatments for extraocular retinoblastoma

Extraocular retinoblastoma is retinoblastoma that has spread from the eye to other parts of the body. The following are treatment options for extraocular retinoblastoma. The healthcare team will suggest treatments based on your child’s needs and work with you and your child to develop a treatment plan. Depending on where the retinoblastoma has spread, your child may have one or more of these treatments.

Your child may be offered systemic chemotherapy for extraocular retinoblastoma. Your child may have chemotherapy alone or along with other treatments, such as radiation therapy. It may be used before or after surgery. Intrathecal chemotherapy may be used for retinoblastoma that has spread to the brain.

Your child may be offered surgery to remove the eye (called enucleation) as a treatment for extraocular retinoblastoma. Chemotherapy may be given before and after surgery.

Your child may be offered high-dose chemotherapy with an autologous stem cell transplant for extraocular retinoblastoma that has spread to the brain and spinal cord (called the central nervous system, or CNS) or other distant sites.

Your child may be offered radiation therapy for extraocular retinoblastoma. The type of radiation therapy used is external beam radiation therapy. If retinoblastoma has reached the CNS, craniospinal radiation therapy may be used as well.

Many children with retinoblastoma are treated in a clinical trial. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, find and treat cancer. Find out more about clinical trials.