OCULAR CANCERS

Ocular cancers are a group of rare, life-threatening conditions that affect one or both eyes. They include both primary tumors, which may occur in the choroid or conjunctival layer on the ocular surface and secondary, metastatic tumors from other solid cancers. The unmet need in ocular oncology is high: there are no approved drug therapies for primary choroidal melanoma, and 50% of these tumors advance to metastatic disease. Similarly, the ocular surface tumor, conjunctival melanoma, is associated with a 25% mortality rate, even with best available, off-label, treatment.

Diagnosing and treating these cancers early is important because they have the potential to spread both within the eye and/or to other organs. The risk of ocular cancer increases with age, increasing significantly after the age of 50. For early choroidal melanoma, our lead indication, the typical treatment is radiotherapy in the form of either plaque brachytherapy or proton beam therapy, but these treatments are highly invasive, and result in major vision loss and other comorbidities for many patients.