[Treatment and prognosis of retinoblastoma from 1975 to 1987]

Among 21 cases of retinoblastoma (28 eyes) treated during the past 14 years in our clinic, 14 cases were unilateral, and 7 were bilateral. The average ages at the first visit were 27 months in unilateral cases and 7.2 months in bilateral cases. In all unilateral cases, in all of which the tumors were large (over group III according to Reese's classification), we removed the affected eye, and all patients survived without any evidence of metastasis or recurrence during a 5-year follow-up period. In bilateral cases, we removed the advanced eyes in which the tumors were large (over group III according to Reese's classification) in all cases, and the contralateral eyes underwent conservative treatment by radiotherapy, photocoagulation or chemotherapy. When tumors in contralateral eyes were small (Group I or II in Reese's classification), tumors of the retina subsided and all patients survived without recurrence or metastasis. However, when the tumors were large (group V), tumors of retina did not subside and survival was very poor. Our results show that the prognosis for survival in bilateral cases depends mainly upon the size of the tumor in the remaining eye.