PURPOSE Preclinical studies demonstrate that cardiac glycosides such as ouabain and digoxin have antitumor effects on retinoblastoma cells in vitro and in a xenograft murine model of retinoblastoma. METHODS Based on these findings, we report a case of intra-arterial followed by systemic oral digoxin therapy in a patient with unilateral retinoblastoma that had failed prior intra-arterial chemo...

AIM To evaluate the association between Down syndrome and retinoblastoma. METHOD Presentation of a case report and review of the literature. RESULTS A retinoblastoma was observed in a 10-month-old boy with Down syndrome. A review of the literature yielded 14 other cases, suggesting a possible excess of retinoblastoma in Down syndrome, as previously proposed by two epidemiological studies. T...

Retinoblastoma is the most common intraocular cancer of childhood, however, only a few cultured retinoblastoma cell lines are available to date. In the present study, we established a new human retinoblastoma cell line with adherent growth, named SNUOT-Rb1. The SNUOT-Rb1 cell line was established from an eye with retinoblastoma, which was enucleated from a 3-year-old Korean child. SNUOT-Rb1 has...

PURPOSE To describe the experience of the Ophthalmology Department of Hospital São João (HSJ), a tertiary health care center in North Region, Portugal, in terms of the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of retinoblastoma. METHODS This was a retrospective study of patients diagnosed with retinoblastoma in Hospital São João, between 1978 and 2012. RESULTS Fifty patients with retinoblastoma w...

We have observed increased binding of retinoblastoma patients' sera to a retinoblastoma-derived cultured cell line (Y-79). This reactivity was mediated by the serum IgG fraction and was directed toward different tumor or target cell (Y-79, Molt, Raji, and fibroblasts) cultured in media containing fetal calf serum. Normal pooled serum IgG fractions did not demonstrate any similar binding. When t...

PURPOSE The authors have recently demonstrated that substance P and L-733,060 induce cell proliferation and cell inhibition, respectively, in human retinoblastoma cell lines. However, the presence of neurokinin-1 receptors has not been demonstrated in such cell lines, nor is it known whether other neurokinin-1 receptor antagonists exert antitumoral action against retinoblastoma cell lines. The ...

A registry including information about nearly 1,600 cases of retinoblastoma diagnosed in Britain has been created at the Childhood Cancer Research Group. Cases have been classified as 'old germ cell mutation', 'new germ cell mutation' or 'sporadic non-hereditary'. For a population-based group of 918 cases diagnosed between 1962 and 1985 we have calculated the proportions of unilateral/bilateral...

Retinoblastoma is a rare eye tumor of childhood that arises in the retina. It is the most common intraocular malignancy of infancy and childhood; with an incidence of 1/15,000–20,000 live births. The two most frequent symptoms revealing retinoblastoma are leukocoria and strabismus. Iris rubeosis, hypopyon, hyphema, buphthalmia, orbital cellulites and exophthalmia may also be observed. Sixty per...

Purpose To report a patient who presented with a very late-onset new growth of intraocular retinoblastoma, which occurred 11 years after the initial combined treatment. Observations A 12-year-old monoophthalmic female patient presented with bilateral familial retinoblastoma showing new growth of intraocular tumor after 11 years of complete regression following combined local and systemic trea...

Inactivation of both alleles of the retinoblastoma susceptibility gene (RB1), localised on chromosome band 13q14, is the crucial event for the development of retinoblastoma, a malignant tumour that originates from embryonal retinal cells. 2 Germinal mutation of one allele leads to a predisposition to retinoblastoma. Tumour development is initiated by inactivation of the second allele. In most f...