Overview
The thought of having eye cancer can be very scary. No one wants to lose an eye, or his or her eyesight for that matter. Understanding eye cancer’s unique signs and symptoms can help you avoid advanced eye cancer damage, in the even of eye cancer development. Here are the things you can look out for to help you realize when it’s time to see a doctor.
Common Signs & Symptoms
If you think you may have eye cancer, you can look for specific symptoms to help you decide when to see a doctor.
- Vision Loss: This can be a reduction of vision in one or both eyes, and involves failed light perception and/or motion detection.
- Floaters in Your Vision: This is when you see spots in your vision that prohibit you from seeing fully as you should. It gives the illusion of something floating through your vision, similar to that of clouds. It can also look like shadows, specks, strands, webs and other shapes.
- Blind Spots: Those living with eye cancer may also find an increased size of blind spots in their vision.
Other Signs and Symptoms
- Eye Immobility: The inability to move the eye as you normally would is another sign that points to eye cancer.
- Complete Vision Loss: Vision loss is a symptom that can be related to eye cancer.
Once you begin having any of the aforementioned symptoms, you should immediately consult with your healthcare provider. There may be other causes for the symptoms, so the signs don’t automatically implicate eye cancer.
Associated Disorders
It is known that DNA abnormalities can cause of eye cancer. Some people’s DNA mutates, causing their cells to become cancerous. Changes in your oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes have been found in cancerous cells caused by melanoma and lymphoma – two forms of eye cancer. The reason for these cellular mutations remains unknown.
