Seeing off cancer

Aadharv was like any toddler-cheerful and playful. But then his mother Shanthamma, like any mother attuned to her child's needs, noticed him having trouble locating his toys. He would also ram into the walls and doors of his home in Kolar, some 65km from Bengaluru.

- PRATHIMA NANDAKUMAR

Based on Shanthamma's hunch, Aadharv (name changed) was taken to an eye specialist. A medical examination revealed a white reflection or glint in Aadharv's eyes. He was referred to the Sankara Eye Hospital in Bengaluru, where he was diagnosed with retinoblastoma-a rare cancer of the retina (that sense light) that mostly occurs in children below six. Aadhary was only two.

At the hospital's ocular oncology centre, a staging of the tumour was done as per the International Classification for Intraocular Retinoblastoma. Aadharv's tumour was group E, and so large that there is little chance of saving the eye. Since the cancer had affected both his eyes, he was started on chemotherapy. But his left eye was not responding to the chemotherapy, and the doctors were forced to remove the tumour and his left eye to prevent the cancer from spreading to other parts of his body.

"When the patient came to us, he was blind as both his eyes were severely affected," said Dr Mahesh Shanmugam, head of ocular oncology and vitreoretinal diseases, Sankara Eye Hospital. "The right eye responded well to both chemotherapy and radiation therapy and the sight was restored. But the child lost vision once again as he developed bleeding inside the eye.