Spontaneous Regression Of Retinoblastoma

Abstract

Two brothers suffering from retinoblastoma are described and the inheritance of this disease in their family is traced. Evidence is bought forward to show that their father suffered in infancy from bilateral retinoblastoma which regressed spontaneously. The literature of the spontaneous regression of retinoblastoma is reviewed. The mode of regression is discussed. The author, in analyzing the literature found that diagnosis of spontaneously regressed retinoblastoma has been based on four types of evidence: (a) a family history of the disease; (b) a clinical diagnosis of bilateral retinoblastoma with the removal of one eye only (usually with histological proof) followed by arrest of growth in the other; (c) a fundus picture corresponding to that of verified cases; and (d) calcified tumour cells in phthisical eyes. The possibility that an acute febrile illness could cause arrest of the growth is suggested by the history of Stallard’s case (British Medical Journal 2 (1936) 962-964) in which regression took place during a scarlet fever illness at the age of four years. The other eye had been removed about three years before due to retinoblastoma.