Your eyes are organs that allow you to see. Many parts of your eye work together to bring objects into focus and send visual information to your brain.
Overview
There are a number of different types of cancer that affect the eyes, including:
- eye melanoma
- squamous cell carcinoma
- lymphoma
- retinoblastoma – a childhood cancer
Cancer can also sometimes develop in the tissues surrounding your eyeball or spread to the eye from other parts of the body, such as the lungs or breasts.
Symptoms of Eye Cancer
Eye cancer does not always cause obvious symptoms and may only be picked up during a routine eye test.
Symptoms of eye cancer can include:
- shadows, flashes of light, or wiggly lines in your vision
- blurred vision
- a dark patch in your eye that’s getting bigger
- partial or total loss of vision
- bulging of 1 eye
- a lump on your eyelid or in your eye that’s increasing in size
- pain in or around your eye, although this is rare
These symptoms can also be caused by more minor eye conditions, so they’re not necessarily a sign of cancer.
But it’s important to get the symptoms checked by a doctor as soon as possible.
Causes of Eye Cancer
- Age. This type is more common in older people.
- Race. Melanoma of the eye is more common in white than black people.
- Eye colour and skin tone.
- Moles.
- Inherited cancer syndromes.
- Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation for some workers.
- Use of sunbeds.
- Age and gender.