Bangalore-based Narayana Nethrayalaya has entered into an agreement with Hospital for Sick Children Sick Kids in Toronto, Canada to give an impetus to treating retinoblastoma, an eye cancer that affects children below five years of age.

Facilitated by healthy kids international a sick kids organization that supports many international projects, the pact will facilitate improving Narayana Nethrayalaya's capacity for genetic analysis and help in predicting chances of other members of the family being affected by retinoblastoma.

Dr K Bhujang Shetty, chairman Narayana Nethrayalaya, while announcing the agreement said that Retinoblastoma is an eye cancer that can potentially take the life of a child. The agreement is a major step in management of children's eye cancer in India.

The aim of the 25-year-old institute is that no child with vision and life threatening eye diseases will be turned away for want of finances, he said.

Dr Ashwin Mallipatna, head of retinoblastoma services, Narayana Nethrayalaya who was trained at sick kids for two years by Dr Brenda Gallie an authority on the disease said approximately one child in every 15, 000 children is affected by retinoblastoma. This is the most common cancer of the eye in India and third most common type of cancer in children here .

Dr Shetty emphasized that if detected early and treated properly the eye-cancer was curable but if it reached the advanced stages, it could endanger the very life of the child. The two main reasons for children being brought in the advanced stage of the disease are lack of awareness on part of the parents and their poor economic status. This collaboration hopes to address both, he said.

The most common presentation of the disease was a white shine from inside the eye sometimes called a cat's eye reflex. Every child with a white spot inside the eye should be investigated in detail for cancer. "In India we often see cancer that has spread outside the eye which gets diagnosed when the eye is painful and red," stated Dr Shetty.

One way to rid the body of this cancer was to completely remove the affected eye. This treatment was usually reserved for children that have advanced cancer affecting one eye. But when both eyes are involved it was a difficult task to preserve the eye with better vision he said.

The duration for the treatment of eye-cancer ranged up to one and a half years and could cost over Rs 1 lakh depending on the stage of the disease, added Dr Mallipatna.