The chirpy three-year-old walked confidently taking bold steps in the auditorium of Sankara Nethralaya. His mother hovered around him, occasionally urging him to be careful and mind the steps and once in a while helping him when he struggled to climb.
Lakshman (name changed) lost his vision to retinoblastoma, a childhood eye cancer that affects one in 18,000 children in India.
It was his reaction while being photographed that alerted his parents. After a couple of such incidents, the family consulted a doctor who referred them to the Indira Gandhi Eye Hospital and Research Centre in their hometown of Lucknow.
Doctors there referred him to AIIMS. He was then referred to Sankara Nethralaya for surgery. He has been coming for treatment since before the pandemic. “During the pandemic, we took a car and came to Chennai,” said his uncle. As the disease was in an advanced stage, the doctors had to remove his eyes, and he lost his vision completely.
Lakshman is under treatment yet to rule out chances of the cancer spreading to other organs, said G. Suguneswari, senior consultant, vitreo retinal and oncology sciences. If detected early, the disease’s progression can be arrested but requires dedicated efforts on the part of parents and doctors, the doctor said. As the cancer is hereditary, it is necessary to follow up on patients and educate them about passing on the disease to the progeny, she said.
Universal screening of children at birth would not rule out the cancer either as retinoblastoma affects children below the age of five and could occur at a later stage.
Lingam Gopal, distinguished senior consultant in the Department of Vitreo Retinal Sciences, said a child at risk should be constantly monitored for the disease. Since it is impractical to ask parents to bring their child every six months for screening and there were not enough trained retinoblastoma specialists to evaluate patients, the next best option was to use software applications on mobile phones.
“There are apps that use tools to evaluate photographs. People should take photographs in digital cameras and upload them to the app,” he said. Parents should use a normal digital camera and not smartphones. Also if using a camera that tones down red reflex then it is necessary to shut the button, he said. This would help the app to identify an abnormal red reflex that would tell doctors that there was a problem in the back of the eye (retina), he said. “These software apps help identify abnormal red reflex. Periodically take pictures in the house and upload them, make sure the red reflex is good,” he said.
Sankara Nethralaya is observing Retinoblastoma Week from May 8 to 14. In the past year, it has treated as many as 139 children, hospital authorities said.
