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Causes
By Mayo Clinic staff
The exact cause of eye melanoma, also called ocular melanoma, isn't known. Scientists believe that DNA plays a role in causing cells to become cancerous. DNA instructs the behavior of cells, so defects (mutations) in DNA can cause cells to malfunction, sometimes resulting in cancer. Sometimes these mutations are inherited, but they may also be acquired during life.
Although researchers have found an association with eye cancer and certain genetic changes, they haven't yet pinpointed why these changes occur, or even if these changes definitively cause cancer.
Eye melanoma most commonly develops in the uvea, the vascular layer of your eye sandwiched between the retina, the thin layer of tissue that lines the back inner wall of your eyeball, and the white of your eye (sclera). Eye melanoma can occur in the front part of the uvea (iris and ciliary body) or in the back part of the uvea (choroid layer).
