[Epidemiological study of 1705 malignant tumors of the eye and adnexa]

Malignant tumours of the eye and adnexa are generally rare, and in the absence of a French national register of declaration of cancers, only an approximate evaluation can be made. We studied the epidemiology of tumours of the eye and adnexa from the laboratory results of anatomical pathology of biopsies examinated at the laboratory of Centre Hospitalier National d'Ophtalmologie des Quinze-Vingts in Paris.

Statistical analysis of the results of histological diagnoses, their sites and the personal histories recovered from the laboratory registers from 1925-1995, a period of 70 years, were carried out.

1705 malignant tumours of the eye and adnexa diagnosed over 70 years consisted of 760 melanomas (44.6%), 450 carcinomas (26.4%), 338 retinoblastomas (19.8%), 95 haematopoetic tumours (5.6%), and 62 diverse others (3.6%). These tumours were localised in: the endo-ocular (1035 cases), lids (398 cases), conjunctiva (119 cases), orbit (90 cases), lacrimal glands (23 cases), caruncle (10 cases), eye lashes (8 cases), optic nerve (6 cases), cornea (3 cases), lacrimal sac (2 cases) and undefined (11 cases).

In our study, endo-ocular tumours are the most frequently seen of all tumours of the eye and adnexa (60.7%) and are essentially represented by melanomas in the elderly and by retinoblastomas in the newborn and infants. Carcinomas are the most frequent lid malignant pathology whose presence increases with age. Tumours originating from haematopoetic tissues are often seen in the sub-epithelial tissues of orbit, lids, conjunctiva and lacrimal gland.