Fight for Sight has launched a campaign to raise awareness of retinoblastoma and will be funding research into the condition.
Researchers from Newcastle University will be developing a model for the disease using stem cell techniques to try to improve treatments. The stem cells will be taken from retinoblastoma patients’ blood samples and could help researchers to gain more information about affected retinal cells as well as increasing successful eye injections during chemotherapy to reach every affected cell.
Professor Majlinda Lako from Newcastle University said: ‘We hope that our research will provide a model in the lab that can be used to understand the genetic events that lead to retinoblastoma tumours as well as to test drugs that go on to clinical trials.’
Dr Neil Ebenezer, Fight for Sight’s director of research, policy and innovation, added: ‘We would like to empower families to be able to identify the signs which could one day help save their child’s sight. We are also funding research that could benefit many children in future.’