Johns Hopkins Oncology Center Eye Cancer Tumors in the eye usually are caused by cancers that spread from other parts of the body, especially the breast. Leukemia and other malignancies also may occur in the eye.
Retinoblastoma is cancer of the retina, the eye's light-sensitive tissue.
It is the most common childhood eye cancer, striking children under the age of 5. Between 500 and 600 cases of retinoblastoma occur in the United States each year. In about a third of the cases, retinoblastoma occurs in both eyes. Symptoms, including pain and vision loss, appear late. Between 1,500 and 2,000 new cases in the eye are diagnosed annually in the United States.