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Complications
By Mayo Clinic staff
Long-term side effects of cancer treatment
Treatments for retinoblastoma may cause long-lasting side effects in young children. What long-term side effects your child is at risk of will depend on what treatments are used.
Ask your child's doctor what long-term complications could occur in your child and what signs and symptoms to watch for. In some cases, doctors can predict what health problems your child may be at risk of in the future. In other cases, treatments are relatively new and doctors don't yet know what the long-term risks will be.
Recurrent retinoblastoma
Children treated for retinoblastoma have a risk of cancer returning in and around the treated eye. For this reason, your child's doctor will schedule follow-up exams to check for recurrent retinoblastoma. The doctor will design a personalized follow-up exam schedule for your child. In most cases, this will likely involve eye exams every few months for the first few years after retinoblastoma treatment ends.
Additionally, children with the inherited form of retinoblastoma have an increased risk of developing other types of cancers in any part of the body in the years after treatment. For this reason, children with inherited retinoblastoma require long-term follow-up with a cancer doctor (oncologist).
