Chemotherapy for eye cancer
Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. These drugs target rapidly dividing cells throughout the whole body. This means that chemotherapy kills cancer cells but it can also damage healthy cells. Depending on the type of eye cancer you have, you may be offered chemotherapy.
If you have chemotherapy, it may be the only treatment you have or it may be used along with other cancer treatments. Your healthcare team will use what they know about the cancer and about your health to plan the drugs, doses and schedules.
You may have chemotherapy to:
- treat eye cancer that doesn’t respond to other treatments
- treat small tumours on the surface of the eye
- relieve pain or control the symptoms of advanced or metastatic eye cancer (called palliative chemotherapy)
With most types of chemotherapy, the drugs travel through the blood to reach and
destroy eye cancer cells all over the body, including cells that may have broken
away from the primary tumour. This is described as
Sometimes chemotherapy is used as a regional therapy for a specific area of the body. Regional chemotherapy for eye cancer may be given:
-
as eye drops (a form of
topical chemotherapy ) to treat cancer on the surface of the eyeball - by a needle put directly into the eye (an intraocular or intravitreal injection)
-
through a
lumbar puncture into thecerebrospinal fluid (CSF) surrounding the spinal cord (an intrathecal injection)
Chemotherapy drugs used for eye cancer
The most common chemotherapy drug combination used for eye cancer is mitomycin C, fluorouracil and methotrexate.
Other chemotherapy drug combinations used for eye cancer are:
- carboplatin and paclitaxel
- CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisolone)
These chemotherapy drugs may also be used for eye cancer:
- chlorambucil
- cyclophosphamide
- cytarabine
- dacarbazine
- etoposide
- fluorouracil (also called 5-fluorouracil or 5-FU) – topical
- lenalidomide
- melphalan
- methotrexate
- mitomycin C – topical
- nab-paclitaxel
- paclitaxel
- temozolomide
- thiotepa
- vincristine
Side effects
Side effects of chemotherapy will depend mainly on the drug, the dose, how it’s given, where it is given and your overall health. Tell your healthcare team if you have side effects that you think are from chemotherapy. The sooner you tell them of any problems, the sooner they can suggest ways to help you deal with them.
Common side effects of chemotherapy drugs for eye cancer include:
- hair loss
- nausea and vomiting
- loss of appetite
- fatigue
- diarrhea
- constipation
- low platelet count (thrombocytopenia), causing you to bleed or bruise more easily
Topical chemotherapy most commonly causes eye problems in the treated eye and skin problems around the treated eye. Intraocular injections may also cause eye problems.
Find out more about chemotherapy
Find out more about chemotherapy and side effects of chemotherapy. To make the decisions that are right for you, ask your healthcare team questions about chemotherapy.
Details on specific drugs change regularly. Find out more about sources of drug information and where to get details on specific drugs.
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