Abu Dhabi: Eye cancer accounts for one to two per cent of all cancer cases in the UAE, according to a leading oncologist.
“The worldwide figures are the same and there is no reason to believe the UAE is any different.
“The real challenge is to create awareness among people as ocular cancer is not much talked about in public platforms or in the media,” Dr Khalid Abuhaleeqa, the only Emirati ocular oncologist and oculoplastic opthalmologist in the UAE, told XPRESS in the context of the World Cancer Day observed on February 4.
Dr Abuhaleeqa, 39, who is also the residency programme director - opthalmology and deputy chairman, academic affairs department at the Mafraq Hospital in Abu Dhabi, said he sees around 50 patients a year; that is at least one a week with ocular cancer.
Ocular cancer affects the eyeball, the orbit or the area around the socket and the adnexal structures like eyeball, tear glands and eyelids. There is also benign eye tumour needing surgery.
“Ocular cancer is seen in adults and children. The most common kind in children as young as two years is Retinablastoma developing from the immature cells of the retina,” said Dr Abuhaleeqa.
He said parents should be careful if they notice symptoms like white pupil, squint and constantly painful red eye in children.
In adults, two ocular cancers are melanoma that affects the eyeball and lymphoma that starts in the immune system cells and spreads to the eye. “The common symptoms are decreasing or disturbed vision,” said Dr Abuhaleeqa.
