Dr. Isdin Oke from Harvard Medical School Awarded $90,000 Knights Templar Eye Foundation Grant for Newborn Retinoblastoma Screening Study

Dr. Isdin Oke from the Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts was awarded a $90,000 grant entitled: Newborn Genomic Screening Strategies to Reduce Disparities in the Visual Outcomes of Retinoblastoma Survivors.

Retinoblastoma is the most common type of eye cancer affecting children in the US, responsible for 1 in 10 cancers in the first year of life. A delay in diagnosis of retinoblastoma can mean the difference between life and death, yet children with limited access to healthcare are much more likely to be diagnosed at an older age. When these children survive retinoblastoma, they are more likely than their wealthier peers to have poor vision or to have their eyes removed as a necessary part of the treatment. Newborn genetic screening is a promising approach that may help identify children at risk of developing retinoblastoma at an early age, but it is not known whether a program of universal newborn screening for retinoblastoma would improve function and survival. Dr. Oke is developing a mathematical model based on one full year of US births that will predict whether newborn screening could prevent visual impairment in children with retinoblastoma. The result would be earlier access to care even for the most disadvantaged children within and outside of the US.