Canadian Mom Spots Amazingly Subtle Sign of Eye Cancer in Photo of Toddler — Would You Notice?
A mother took to social media to reveal how she discovered her toddler’s rare eye cancer.
Steph, from Canada, was taking a flash photo of her 16-month-old daughter, Summer Raine, in 2021 when she noticed something strange.
While one eye appeared red from the flash, the other had a white, cloudy glow. “I knew something was wrong,” Steph said in a recent TikTok video.
Steph rushed her toddler to the local emergency room in Toronto, where doctors discovered retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer that grows in the back of the eye due to a genetic mutation.
Steph, a mother in Canada, posted on TikTok that she noticed a white glow in the left pupil of her daughter, Summer Raine. It turned out to be the eye cancer retinoblastoma
Summer underwent three months of chemotherapy, although she did not respond to the treatment. She had to have her left eye removed and is now cancer free
Although rare, retinoblastoma is the most common eye cancer in children, with approximately 200 to 300 patients diagnosed each year, most of whom are under two years of age.
Three out of four patients, like Summer, have retinoblastoma in only one eye.
Summer immediately began three months of chemotherapy, even though her tumor did not respond to the treatment.
To prevent the cancer from spreading, doctors decided to remove her left eye.
This eliminated all evidence of the disease and three years later she remains cancer-free.
Despite being so rare, retinoblastoma generally has a good prognosis, with a survival rate of 96 percent.
Symptoms include having a white pupil, a cloudy eye, misaligned eyes looking toward the ears or nose, different colored irises, and a red and inflamed eyeball.
Steph now focuses on spreading awareness about retinoblastoma to other parents.
“Keep in mind that retinoblastoma is rare, but make sure you check your baby’s eyes at a moment’s notice,” Steph wrote in a caption on one of her videos.
‘Retinas should not be white.’