Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma

Register for my Sunday, July 19, 2026 10AM PST live Webinar here to learn more! When thinking of all the ways we can beat cancer, most oncologists are thinking of treatments - radiation, surgery, new cancer drugs. All vitally important. And some doctors will discuss the importance of improving your physical health - getting better sleep, doing more exercise and eating healthier. But which doctors...

Surprising as it may seem, the training to become an eye cancer specialist is highly variable. The only common denominator is that we all attended ophthalmology residency after medical school. An ophthalmology residency is the 4 or 5 years of subspecialty training where a medical doctor learns diseases and surgery of the eye. Additional training beyond residency is called a "fellowship". There are...

It is actually uncommon that your eyeball will shrink after brachytherapy or proton therapy radiation for ocular melanoma treatment. If the tumor is large, and the treatment results in the eye no longer being able to produce aqueous humor, then the eyeball may get smaller due to poor functioning. We call this phthisis bulbi, which means "end-stage eye". However, the majority of people have eyelid...

The answer is definitely - No! Once the tumor has responded to radiation treatment (that it, it is killed and no longer viable), it will not respond to anything you do to it - whether you spend most of your time out of doors, you don't wear sunglasses, you have additional intraocular surgery or take medications. There is nothing we know of that will make a well-treated ocular melanoma come back to...

Sixteen years ago, we published our findings that silicone oil, a substance that is used to repair retinal detachments can be used to shield radiation from healthy non-tumor parts of the eye, because it is denser than the vitreous humor that fills the eye. Using silicone oil during ocular melanoma treatment is a standard of care treatment at UCLA, Stein Eye Institute. At the time of brachytherapy...

Almost every patient has wondered if they might lose their sight. However, the fear and overwhelm of what we don't understand can be more troubling than the vision itself. Join Dr. Tara McCannel to learn how the eye creates vision and how eye diseases can change how we see. Learning about your eye health will help you make informed choices during treatment and stay focused on living your best life...

The most important test after tumor treatment is the ultrasound. That is what we use to know how effective our treatment is. Having new blood, having an increase in retinal detachment and even having a decrease in vision may not have anything to do with how well the ocular melanoma has been treated.  Get your copy of the one-page Ocular Melanoma: Start Here Guide , it will be emailed to you immedi...

It is very common to have a drooping eyelid (called "ptosis") after ocular melanoma surgery. The most common reason is post-operative edema. The second reason is mechanical ptosis from the surgery itself. The time to start looking into treatment options by an oculoplastics (eye-lid and eye-socket) specialist is at least 4-5 months after your surgery so that you give yourself time to heal naturally...

In your reading about ways to treat an ocular melanoma, you may have come across a technique called "tumor endoresection". This is essentially removing the ocular melanoma from the eye by either an external technique, or an internal technique. The reason tumor endoresection is not offered in North American ocular oncology centers is because of the significant risk of morbidity to a patient's healt...

The most common and best way to treat an ocular melanoma where the tumor has not grown past the point of treatment, and where there is still vision in the eye is plaque brachytherapy. We discuss how surgery works, and review what to expect. Get your copy of the one-page Ocular Melanoma: Start Here Guide , it will be emailed to you immediately. Welcome to Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma, a gu...

Welcome! For those of you who are new to me and my mission, I want to share a little about my background, experience and my philosophy toward patient care. Welcome back if you are visiting again!  Get your copy of the one-page Ocular Melanoma: Start Here Guide , it will be emailed to you immediately. Welcome to Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma, a guide to understanding everything there is to...

Many people worry that relying on a better-seeing eye may wear it out, make it see less well and also make the better-seeing eye more susceptible to disease. This is entirely not the case. Listen to understand how the eye works, how our brains process the information, and what we know happens to people with one well-seeing eye and one weaker-seeing eye. The better-seeing eye is meant to be used fu...

Among the leaders in medicine, and specifically people who have changed the field of Ophthalmology, Dr. Bradley Straatsma stands out as a legendary giant. The list of his contributions is lengthy. Dr. Straatsma was meticulous, he had the highest standards, and he cared deeply about ophthalmology and ocular oncology. He was visionary, open-minded, and generous. I am honored to be one of his mentees...

Many people worry that relying on a better-seeing eye may wear it out, make it see less well and also make the better-seeing eye more susceptible to disease. This is entirely not the case. Listen to understand how the eye works, how our brains process the information, and what we know happens to people with one well-seeing eye and one weaker-seeing eye. The better-seeing eye is meant to be used fu...

Here is a simple one-page guide to use as a starting point. Wherever you are in your journey - you have a suspicious growth; you've just been diagnosed; you've already been treated; you have been diagnosed with metastasis. Learn as much as you can. Knowledge will give you the confidence to be in control and advocate for yourself.   Get your copy of the one-page Ocular Melanoma: Start Here Guide ,...

You may wish to update your glasses prescription after having eye surgery. This may be the case after cataract surgery, retinal detachment surgery (scleral buckling and/or vitrectomy), plaque brachytherapy surgery, and even during a course of getting eye injections. The accuracy of the prescription is determined mostly by the smoothness of the external surface of your eye. The stability of the ins...

During perimenopause and menopause, estrogen (and sometimes progesterone) decline significantly. Estrogen affects more than just hot flashes. It plays a role in brain function, mood, sleep, bone density, cardiovascular health, skin, and even joint health; therefore, symptoms of deficiency can be widespread and subtle. HRT can prevent osteoporosis, reduce fracture risk, and possibly improve cardiov...

Radiation kills ocular melanoma by disrupting and damaging the DNA - the blueprint for allowing the cancer cells to multiply. The source of the radiation in a brachytherapy plaque is either seeds of iodine-125, seeds of palladium-103 or seeds of ruthenium-106. When the treatment is over, the whole plaque that contains the radiation seeds within it, is removed entirely from the body. There is nothi...

You may find yourself in a tricky situation where your doctors think you MIGHT have an ocular melanoma or it's possible that the lesion may be benign. Usually, when there is something borderline, close observation is what experienced ocular oncologists often recommend. Benign lesions do not change, and continued monitoring will reveal stability. However, lesions that are cancer will slowly change,...

Not only is it possible to get relief from worries about Ocular Melanoma, but it is also possible for you to become an expert, to take control over the way ocular melanoma affects you and your life, to be held accountable to make the necessary changes in your life, and to work closely with a group of people who are on the same page as you.  For those who have heard about Navigating Ocular Melanoma...

What is a nevus? How did I get it? Can if affect my vision? How likely will the nevus change into a melanoma? How does my doctor know it is benign? Should I have it biopsied or treated? In this webinar, I will also show you how it is possible to easily monitor your own choroidal nevus, alongside your eye-care provider. Know when you need to get additional testing, be referred, or to get a second o...

I had the honor of being invited to speak at the 54th Aspen Retinal Detachment Society Meeting in Snowmass, Colorado. In my lecture I chronicle the history of prognostic biopsy in vivo. The first prognostic biopsy in North America was performed by me, at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, UCLA in 2005. Reasons for the inaccuracy of biopsy are discussed, as well as the alarming trend to use prognostic...

If you have a small ocular lesion that is suspicious, or that makes your eye doctors concerned for cancer, know this - you never have to rush into deciding what to do about it. This is because even small cancers grow slowly, so time is on your side to come up with a plan. Get second opinions ALWAYS when there is the possibility of a cancer, or if your doctors are thinking of an ocular procedure or...

In the setting of ocular melanoma, the most common reason you may need an eye injection is to treat radiation retinopathy. The class of drugs that may help with radiation retinopathy is "anti-VEGF therapy" (VEGF = vascular endothelial growth factor). The various options are Avastin (bevacizumab), Eylea (aflibercept), Eylea HD, Lucentis (ranibizumab), Vabysmo (faricimab), and Beovu (brolocizumab)....

Have you ever wondered why your eye doctors initially thought you had a retinal detachment when you really had an ocular melanoma? For many people who get diagnosed with ocular melanoma, everything began when an eye doctor believed that there was a retinal detachment, and then expedited a referral to a retina specialist. It is usually the retina specialist who first suspects that there may be a po...