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Updated: Jul 13, 2026
Anterior High-Resolution Optical Coherence Tomography in the Diagnosis and Therapeutic Monitoring of Ocular Surface Squamous Neoplasia
Published on: August 9, 2024
Conjunctival tumors in children
Carol L Shields1, Jerry A Shields
1Ocular Oncology Service, Wills Eye Institute, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107, USA. carol.shields@shieldsoncology.com
Purpose Of Review:
Numerous conjunctival tumors can occur in children, originating from tissues of choristomatous, epithelial, melanocytic, vascular, fibrous, xanthomatous and lymphoid. Overall, 97% prove to be benign and only 3% are malignant.
Recent Findings:
The most common malignancies include conjunctival lymphoma and melanoma. In our experience, the most common conjunctival tumors in children include nevus (64%), dermolipoma (5%), lymphangioma (3%) and capillary hemangioma (3%). Conjunctival nevi can manifest as a darkly pigmented (65%), lightly pigmented (19%) and completely nonpigmented (16%) mass. Most nevi occurred at the nasal or temporal limbus, without involvement of the cornea. Occasionally, they are located in the caruncle, but rarely are nevi found in the fornix or tarsal conjunctival surface. Intralesional cysts are visible in 65% of nevi. Change in nevus color over time has been noted in 5% of cases and change in nevus size has been documented in 7%. Evolution of conjunctival nevus into malignant melanoma is extremely low (<1%).
Summary:
Conjunctival nevus is the most common conjunctival tumor in children and fewer than 1% evolve into melanoma over time.
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