search
for
 About Bioline  All Journals  Testimonials  Membership  News


Indian Journal of Cancer
Medknow Publications on behalf of Indian Cancer Society
ISSN: 0019-509X EISSN: 1998-4774
Vol. 48, Num. 3, 2011, pp. 371-372

Indian Journal of Cancer, Vol. 48, No. 3, July-September, 2011, pp. 371-372

Letter to Editor

Twenty-year trends of retinoblastoma under five hospital-based cancer registries: Few observations

Department of Vitreoretina and Ocular Oncology, Medical Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, India
Correspondence Address: V Khetan, Department of Vitreoretina and Ocular Oncology, Medical Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, India, drkhetan@yahoo.com

Code Number: cn11098

PMID: 21921344

DOI: 10.4103/0019-509X.84920

Sir,

We read with interest the paper titled "Trend of reported cases of retinoblastoma under five hospital based cancer registries" by Sachdeva S. in your esteemed journal. [1] The initiative taken up by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is commendable and should be applauded. In fact, from March 2009, ICMR has started a project called National Retinoblastoma Registry, the purpose of which is to try and capture all cases of retinoblastoma in the country. Presently, there are 10 centers in the registry, but it is expanding, and we intend to reach every nook and corner of the country.

However, we believe that in most instances retinoblastoma cases do not primarily report to cancer hospitals directly. These are treated largely by ophthalmologists and are referred to cancer hospitals only for the purpose of receiving chemotherapy or external beam radiotherapy. Eyes salvaged by treatment modalities like transpupillary thermotherapy, cryotherapy and those undergoing primary enucleation not requiring adjuvant chemotherapy do not reach these centers. Also, only a small percentage of eyes that undergo enucleation for retinoblastoma get referred to cancer hospitals after histopathological examination. Hence, it is evident that only a small proportion of retinoblastoma cases get referred to cancer hospitals. An estimate of total retinoblastoma cases from mere records of cancer hospitals would lead to under reporting in the incidence of this potentially lethal cancer.

For these reasons, retinoblastoma may in fact constitute a higher proportion of childhood cancers than that reported by the authors.

The authors should also specify the names and exact locations of the cancer registries in the cities mentioned. We are an ophthalmic tertiary care center catering to nearly 80-100 retinoblastoma cases every year, and have reported the clinical spectrum and treatment outcomes of a cohort of 488 eyes of 355 patients with retinoblastoma over a 14-year period (1990-2004). [2] However, we may not be referring our cases to these cancer registries leading to omission of our patient pool from the concerned studies.

In conclusion, we are of the opinion that the total number of retinoblastoma cases has been underestimated in this study.

References

1.Sachdeva S. Trend of reported cases of retinoblastoma under five hospital based cancer registries. Indian J Cancer 2010;47:473-4.  Back to cited text no. 1  [PUBMED]  Medknow Journal
2.Shanmugam MP, Biswas J, Gopal L, Sharma T, Nizamuddin SH. The clinical spectrum and treatment outcome of retinoblastoma in Indian children. J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus 2005;42:75-81.  Back to cited text no. 2  [PUBMED]  

Copyright 2011 - Indian Journal of Cancer

Home Faq Resources Email Bioline
© Bioline International, 1989 - 2024, Site last up-dated on 01-Sep-2022.
Site created and maintained by the Reference Center on Environmental Information, CRIA, Brazil
System hosted by the Google Cloud Platform, GCP, Brazil