gms | German Medical Science

Background: Description of two clinical courses their therapy and histopathology. We treated in our clinic two male patients with late-onset disease of retinoblastoma during adulthood with radiotherapy. In one of the cases a retinom without progress was previously diagnosed at least five years prior first presentation at our clinic.

Methods: Retrospective case report (two patients).

Results: In both cases the unilateral effected eye was treated by radiotherapy. In one of the cases with external beam radiation, in the other one we preformed gamma-knife radiation. Tumour regression was seen in both eyes, but uncontrolled tumour growth led to enucleation of both eyes during one year after treatment. The histopathology showed in both cases an undifferentiated retinoblastoma.

Conclusion: These two cases show that retinoblastoma should always be included as a differential diagnoses even in adulthood. Although the precondition was good to achieve tumour control by radiation therapy, in the end we saw unexpected tumour growth with the loss of both effected eyes.