Types of eye cancer

Eye cancers are called ocular cancers. Ocular is the medical name for the eye. Cancers affecting the inside of the eye are intraocular. And those affecting the outside of the eye are extraocular.

Intraocular cancers include

• Melanoma of the eye
• Lymphoma of the eye
• Rare cancers in children

Melanoma of the eye

The cells that become cancerous in melanoma are called melanocytes. Melanocytes are cells that make pigment or colouring. There are melanocytes in our skin, lips, and the lining of organs such as the eye.

Most melanomas start in the skin but they can also develop in other parts of the body including the eye. If you are looking for information about melanoma of the skin you need to go to the melanoma section of CancerHelp UK.

Melanoma of the eye can start in the

• Eyeball (globe)
• Conjunctiva (covering of the front of the eyeball)
• Eyelid

Melanoma of the conjunctiva and the eyelid are extraocular cancers and they are extremely rare. You can see a picture of the parts of the eye on the page about the eye.

Melanoma starting in the eyeball is rare, but it is the most common type of eye cancer in adults. Your specialist may call it uveal or choroidal melanoma because it grows in the tissues in the middle layer of the eyeball, the choroid. This layer is sometimes called the uvea and includes the iris and ciliary body.  

The melanoma starts in the choroid or the ciliary body in almost 95 out of every 100 cases (95%) of eyeball melanoma. The other 5% begin in the iris.

Iris melanomas are usually easy to spot, so doctors often diagnose them when they are in their early stages. They are slow growing and rarely spread to other parts of the body.

Doctors also group melanomas of the eyeball according to the way the cancerous cells look under a microscope. There are three types

• Spindle cell melanomas – made from long stretched out cells
• Non spindle cell melanomas (epithelioid) – made from round or oval cells, which are harder to treat and more likely to spread to other parts of the body
• A mix of spindle and non spindle cells

Treatment for melanoma of the eyeball is with surgery or radiotherapy, or both.

Lymphoma of the eye

Lymphoma usually begins in the lymph nodes, which are part of your immune system.

Very rarely lymphoma begins inside the eyes. This is called intraocular lymphoma. Intraocular lymphomas are always non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. You are more likely to have intraocular lymphoma if you have a weakened immune system. For example, people who

• Have AIDS
• Have had organ transplants and need to take drugs to damp down their immune system
• Are elderly

Intraocular lymphoma is treated in the same way as a lymphoma anywhere else in the body. Look in the non Hodgkin’s lymphoma section of CancerHelp UK for information about the treatment of non Hodgkin’s lymphomas.

Rare cancers in children

There are 2 main types of cancers of the eyeball that develop in children. These are

• Retinoblastoma
• Medulloepithelioma

Retinoblastoma is a rare type of eye cancer that nearly always occurs in children under the age of 5. There is information about retinoblastoma in the question and answer section of CancerHelp UK.

Medulloepithelioma is a very rare type of eye tumour found most often in young children. It does not usually spread. Treatment is surgery to remove the tumour. Occasionally, this will involve removing the eye.

It is possible to get a cancer in the tissues and structures surrounding the eyeball. The areas around the eyes are the orbit and the accessory muscles. Cancers that develop in these parts of the eye are cancers of muscle, nerve and skin tissue.

Other sections of CancerHelp UK cover these types of cancers. For example, a cancer of the eyelid is usually a basal cell skin cancer and doctors treat it like any other skin cancer. The skin cancer section of CancerHelp UK has information about this.

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a rare type of cancer that can start in the muscles that move the eye, usually in children. The soft tissue sarcoma section of CancerHelp UK covers cancers of nerve or muscle tissue.

Sometimes a cancer can spread to the eye from another part of the body. A cancer that has spread to the eye is called a secondary eye cancer. In women this is most likely to happen with breast cancer, and in men lung cancer.