Eye Melanoma

Eye melanoma or ocular melanoma is a rare cancer type that has its affects on different parts of the eye, especially the iris, choroid and the ciliary body. The most common type of eye malignancy is choroidal melanoma.

Melanoma is a cancer that develops in the melanin producing cells. Melanin is a pigment that is responsible for the skin color. These cells are also present in the eye and can also develop melanoma. Eye melanoma is difficult to identify and it does not cause early signs or symptoms.

Symptoms

• Most of the time there are no visible symptoms of eye melanoma, particularly in the initial stages. In such cases, a routine eye screening is performed by the optician. The symptoms of eye melanoma include:
• Blurred or loss of vision in the affected eye
• A dark spot or change in the color of iris
• Painful or red eye
• Floaters in the eye
• Peripheral vision loss
• Flashing light sensation
• Bulging eye

Complications
A growing eye melanoma may cause some serious complications like:

• Glaucoma: blurred vision, red eyes and pain in the eye
• Spreading of eye melanoma: eye melanoma can spread to different parts of the body like bones, lungs and liver
• Vision loss:  large melanomas can cause serious complications that cause vision loss, such as retinal detachment.  Small melanomas, if they are in some critical eye parts, can also cause vision loss.

Causes
Like most of the other types of cancer, there is no particular cause of eye melanoma. But, it has been believed that it is related to the UV sun rays’ exposure. However, researches are being done to prove this fact.

Nevertheless, there are some risk factors that have been found to develop eye melanoma. These are:

• Having light eye color or hair color or being fair skinned.
• Suffering from dysplastic nevus syndrome- a condition causing abnormal moles
• Suffering from oculodermal melanocytosis - a rare condition causing abnormal and increased pigmentation in the skin around the eye and in the eye.
• Increasing age
• Sun exposure

For any information on complete eyecare, please contact Killeen Eyecare Center. You can contact us at 254-634-7805.

Eye Doctor Fort Hood - Optometrist Fort Hood