What Is the Cure Rate for Retinoblastoma?

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Beginning in the early 1900s, and late 1800s people really began approaching treatment for this, and that was removal of eye. Remember that was before there was good anesthesia. So it was an operation that rarely worked that was really torture for the children, but the physicians who thought of it were onto something realizing that perhaps this could be a curable cancer.

Now the bad news, last year in the world half the children who developed Retinoblasoma died. So not only was it a problem 100 years ago it remains a problem today. The good news. In the United States throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, some other parts of the world, cure rates are much higher and in the United States most centers now report cure rates of 95%.

I run the largest Retinoblastoma center in the world at Memorial Sound Catering, and our cure rate is now over 99%, we are not at a 100% but we're over 99%. So we've gone In a 100 years from virtually 100% of the children dying in the United States to almost 100% of children surviving, that's pretty encouraging it has the highest cure rate now of any cancer in childhood and of any cancer other than some skin cancers.