1. How long can retinoblastoma live? The incidence of retinoblastoma is 1:15,000-20,000 live births, and the number of new cases in China is more than 1,100 per year, second only to India (more than 1,500 cases per year). 84% occur within 3 years of age and 95% occur in children within 5 years of age, with no racial or gender differences. One third of these cases are bilateral, with an early age of onset averaging 15 months, and two thirds are monocular, with a slightly later age of onset averaging 27 months. more than 90% are disseminated cases, that is, there is no family history. At present, the rate of eye preservation in China is about 30-50%, and about 1-2% of patients have eye atrophy and tumor necrosis in the process of disease development, which is clinically called “self-healing”. If treatment is timely, the patient can survive for a long time. International data show that the overall survival rate can reach 96%. 2.What are the symptoms of retinoblastoma? Since the tumor occurs in infants and children, it is not easy to be detected in early stage. About 50% of the children are found by their parents due to the development of white pupil (white reflection in the pupil area), and about 20% of the affected eyes show internal or external strabismus because the tumor is located in the macula and the vision is impaired. A small number of eyes with redness and glaucoma are misdiagnosed by clinicians as uveitis, which is actually a “camouflage syndrome” caused by retinoblastoma. On examination, a round or oval yellowish-white bulging mass with indistinct borders on the retina is seen, which may have dilated retinal blood vessels or hemorrhage on the surface or be accompanied by retinal detachment. The tumor mass may spread to the eye and the tumor grows to cause increased intraocular pressure, which can be seen as corneal epithelial edema, corneal enlargement and eye bulge. In late stage, the tumor penetrates the wall of the eye, which may manifest as a mass on the surface of the eye or protrusion of the eye. The tumor may expand into the skull or orbit, or metastasize to nearby lymph nodes and soft tissues, or metastasize to the whole body through blood circulation, leading to death. 3.How to treat retinoblastoma Treatment methods can be chemotherapy, local radiation therapy, highly selective ophthalmic artery chemotherapy and combination therapy for relatively early stage patients, which can improve the rate of eye preservation and some patients can retain part of their useful vision, but patients with advanced tumors are still mainly treated with eye removal, which can lead to eye removal or even loss of life if the best treatment time is lost. 4. Is retinoblastoma hereditary? This is the most common intraocular malignant tumor in infants and children, which poses a serious threat and danger to vision and life. It occurs in the nuclear layer of the retina and has a tendency to run in families. The probability of occurrence in offspring is somewhat greater than in the general population, and there is no method to definitively rule out retinoblastoma before birth, either abroad or in China. A patient with bilateral, hereditary retinoblastoma has a 50% chance of having a child with the disease; a patient with unilateral, non-family history retinoblastoma has only a 5% chance of having a child with the disease. A patient with bilateral retinoblastoma still has a 2-6% chance of having a healthy sibling or child in the next generation. Is retinoblastoma fatal? Retinoblastoma (RB) is the most common intraocular malignancy in infants and children, posing a serious threat and danger to vision and life. It is one of the most serious and dangerous malignant tumors among infants and children’s eye diseases. It occurs in the retinal nucleus and has a family genetic tendency. It mostly occurs under the age of 5 years and can occur in one eye, both eyes or both eyes at the same time. Retinoblastoma is a neuroectodermal tumor, which is a malignant tumor caused by the loss of function of oncogene due to the mutation of Rb gene. In recent years, there is an increasing trend of cases encountered in the clinic, and some people think it is related to the increase of environmental pollution.