Retinoblastoma in Asia: Clinical Presentation and Treatment Outcomes in 2112 Patients from 33 Countries

Purpose: To describe the clinical presentation and treatment outcomes of children who received a diagnosis of retinoblastoma in 2017 throughout Asia. Design: Multinational, prospective study including treatment-naïve patients in Asia who received a diagnosis of retinoblastoma in 2017 and were followed up thereafter. Participants: A total of 2112 patients (2797 eyes) from 96 retinoblastoma treatment centers in 33 Asian countries. Interventions: Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, enucleation, and orbital exenteration. Main Outcome Measures: Enucleation and death. Results: Within the cohort, 1021 patients (48%) were from South Asia (SA), 503 patients (24%) were from East Asia (EA), 310 patients (15%) were from Southeast Asia (SEA), 218 patients (10%) were from West Asia (WA), and 60 patients (3%) were from Central Asia (CA). Mean age at presentation was 27 months (median, 23 months; range, < 1–261 months). The cohort included 1195 male patients (57%) and 917 female patients (43%). The most common presenting symptoms were leukocoria (72%) and strabismus (13%). Using the American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging Manual, Eighth Edition, classification, tumors were staged as cT1 (n = 441 [16%]), cT2 (n = 951 [34%]), cT3 (n = 1136 [41%]), cT4 (n = 267 [10%]), N1 (n = 48 [2%]), and M1 (n = 129 [6%]) at presentation. Retinoblastoma was treated with intravenous chemotherapy in 1450 eyes (52%) and 857 eyes (31%) underwent primary enucleation. Three-year Kaplan-Meier estimates for enucleation and death were 33% and 13% for CA, 18% and 4% for EA, 27% and 15% for SA, 32% and 22% for SEA, and 20% and 11% for WA (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.0001), respectively. Conclusions: At the conclusion of this study, significant heterogeneity was found in treatment outcomes of retinoblastoma among the regions of Asia. East Asia displayed better outcomes with higher rates of globe and life salvage, whereas Southeast Asia showed poorer outcomes compared with the rest of Asia. Financial Disclosure(s): The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.