Eye cancer cases among children in Pakistan increase at alarming pace: experts

RAWALPINDI: Speakers at a seminar warned that Pakistan was witnessing an alarming increase in eye cancer cases among children.
Addressing the seminar titled: “Story of challenges and opportunities”, Prof Dr Tayyab Afghani, HOD Oculoplastics said children’s eye cancer in Pakistan was higher than India and China, and genetic diagnosis can reduce children’s eye cancer cases.
Dr Afghani said that 2,000 children with eye cancer have been registered of whom 500 have fully recovered.
He said the adverse effects of the treatment, like facial scars, rejuvenate the damaged skin so that the patient can live a good quality of life.
The Al-Shifa Eye Cancer Center caters to surgery, chemotherapy, and rehabilitation under one roof, free of cost.
Addressing on the occasion, President Al-Shifa Trust retired Maj-Gen Rehmat Khan said every stage of the procedure — from evaluation to chemotherapy and rehabilitation — is handled under one roof, making our hospital a unique source of treating patients suffering from eye cancer.
The patients include non-affording men, women, and especially children, and 86 per cent of all eye cancer patients are children, he said.

Two sister departments support the eye cancer centre; one is ophthalmology genetic, which provides genetic screening of the parents to assess any possibility of cancer in future races and suggest how it can be prevented.
The second department is the aesthetic department, which minimizes the effects of chemotherapy and radiation on the skin and face.
Over the past three years, the Al-Shifa Eye Cancer Centre has successfully performed 2,500 sessions of chemotherapy procedures for children who have been diagnosed with eye cancer.
Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2024