If you have a small ocular lesion that is suspicious, or that makes your eye doctors concerned for cancer, know this - you never have to rush into deciding what to do about it. This is because even small cancers grow slowly, so time is on your side to come up with a plan. Get second opinions ALWAYS when there is the possibility of a cancer, or if your doctors are thinking of an ocular procedure or surgery to figure out the next steps. Ocular melanomas and eye cancers are rare. Even your ocular oncologist may not have seen a lot of cases. Increasingly, more and more ocular oncologists are choosing to perform a biopsy as part of their decision-making. Listen on to learn how performing a prognostic biopsy (that is to see if you are a Class 1 or 2 lesion) to sort out your situation may be problematic and may result in over-treatment of small lesions that may not be cancer.

Welcome to Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma, a guide to understanding everything there is to know about your experience with this rare cancer. Learn through the lens of my knowledge and clinical experience as a physician expert and passionate patient advocate. The more you know about ocular melanoma, the better you will do, and the better you will live. Let's go!

For Tara McCannel's resources (including webinar links and link to my book!), visit my website: https://seyhart.com/ocularmelanoma

The content shared on the Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information provided must not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. As a listener, you are responsible for your own health-related decisions and must consider consulting with a healthcare professional for personalized medical advice.

Tara McCannel MD PhD is a an ocular oncologist, vitreoretinal surgeon and co-founder of Seyhart Wellness. She is also the host of the Mind Body MD podcast where she shares her passion for holistic health and wellness.

In the setting of ocular melanoma, the most common reason you may need an eye injection is to treat radiation retinopathy. The class of drugs that may help with radiation retinopathy is "anti-VEGF therapy" (VEGF = vascular endothelial growth factor). The various options are Avastin (bevacizumab), Eylea (aflibercept), Eylea HD, Lucentis (ranibizumab), Vabysmo (faricimab), and Beovu (brolocizumab). All will potentially be beneficial, and sometimes your doctor may switch to a different one of these drugs to get more of an effect. The second reason you may need an eye injection is to treat inflammation. The class of drugs to treat signs and symptoms of inflammation is steroid therapy. The steroids on a needle include kenalog (triamcinolone), Triescence (triamcinolone), Ozurdex (dexamethasone) and Xipere (triamcinolone). It is important that your ocular oncologist or retina specialist distinguish the difference between radiation retinopathy and inflammation because the treatments for these different conditions are also different. Inflammation will usually get better; radiation retinopathy may worsen with time, but usually stabilizes or plateaus. Anti-VEGF therapy can improve your symptoms of radiation retinopathy especially early on. However, the shots don't "cure" radiation retinopathy, and most people do not need anti-VEGF shots indefinitely.

Welcome to Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma, a guide to understanding everything there is to know about your experience with this rare cancer. Learn through the lens of my knowledge and clinical experience as a physician expert and passionate patient advocate. The more you know about ocular melanoma, the better you will do, and the better you will live. Let's go!

For Tara McCannel's resources (including webinar links and link to my book!), visit my website: https://seyhart.com/ocularmelanoma

The content shared on the Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information provided must not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. As a listener, you are responsible for your own health-related decisions and must consider consulting with a healthcare professional for personalized medical advice.

Tara McCannel MD PhD is a an ocular oncologist, vitreoretinal surgeon and co-founder of Seyhart Wellness. She is also the host of the Mind Body MD podcast where she shares her passion for holistic health and wellness.

Have you ever wondered why your eye doctors initially thought you had a retinal detachment when you really had an ocular melanoma? For many people who get diagnosed with ocular melanoma, everything began when an eye doctor believed that there was a retinal detachment, and then expedited a referral to a retina specialist. It is usually the retina specialist who first suspects that there may be a possible tumor.

Welcome to Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma, a guide to understanding everything there is to know about your experience with this rare cancer. Learn through the lens of my knowledge and clinical experience as a physician expert and passionate patient advocate. The more you know about ocular melanoma, the better you will do, and the better you will live. Let's go!

For Tara McCannel's resources (including webinar links and link to my book!), visit my website: https://seyhart.com/ocularmelanoma

The content shared on the Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information provided must not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. As a listener, you are responsible for your own health-related decisions and must consider consulting with a healthcare professional for personalized medical advice.

Tara McCannel MD PhD is a an ocular oncologist, vitreoretinal surgeon and co-founder of Seyhart Wellness. She is also the host of the Mind Body MD podcast where she shares her passion for holistic health and wellness.

Once the ocular melanoma has been treated with radiation, the ocular oncologist monitors for treatment response and complications. Essentially, this means that at each follow-up appointment it is confirmed that the tumor remains dead and killed, and anything that might be treatable is discovered and acted upon. But what about between visits? Are there clues that I must act on so I won't miss a problem with my treated cancer? The short answer is - I am not aware of an instance where a patient knew of or suspected recurrence. But there are countless times when patients assume that something they notice might be recurrence, and it is not. Let your ophthalmologist or ocular oncologist see you to help sort out new symptoms, and always have your treated tumor checked.

Welcome to Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma, a guide to understanding everything there is to know about your experience with this rare cancer. Learn through the lens of my knowledge and clinical experience as a physician expert and passionate patient advocate. The more you know about ocular melanoma, the better you will do, and the better you will live. Let's go!

For Tara McCannel's resources (including webinar links and link to my book!), visit my website: https://seyhart.com/ocularmelanoma

The content shared on the Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information provided must not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. As a listener, you are responsible for your own health-related decisions and must consider consulting with a healthcare professional for personalized medical advice.

Tara McCannel MD PhD is a an ocular oncologist, vitreoretinal surgeon and co-founder of Seyhart Wellness. She is also the host of the Mind Body MD podcast where she shares her passion for holistic health and wellness.

Sometimes the toughest part about ocular melanoma can be the time after you have completely recovered from your treatment. Now what? About six months in, you may feel anxious, you may be "waiting" for the cancer to show up somewhere else, and you realize that you may still have unanswered questions. This is a very common experience, and most people feel just like you. Here are some tips to help: Continue to engage with your ocular oncologist and general oncologist. Keep learning as much as you can. Get your questions answered. Be proactive and consider second opinions with experts. Stay on top of eye exams and your scans. Focus on improving your whole-body health.

Welcome to Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma, a guide to understanding everything there is to know about your experience with this rare cancer. Learn through the lens of my knowledge and clinical experience as a physician expert and passionate patient advocate. The more you know about ocular melanoma, the better you will do, and the better you will live. Let's go!

For Tara McCannel's resources (including webinar links and link to my book!), visit my website: https://seyhart.com/ocularmelanoma

The content shared on the Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information provided must not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. As a listener, you are responsible for your own health-related decisions and must consider consulting with a healthcare professional for personalized medical advice.

Tara McCannel MD PhD is a an ocular oncologist, vitreoretinal surgeon and co-founder of Seyhart Wellness. She is also the host of the Mind Body MD podcast where she shares her passion for holistic health and wellness.

Should I have plaque or protons? You may be just diagnosed with ocular melanoma, or your eye doctors are concerned about something that MAY be ocular melanoma. We know that radiation treatment is the best way to kill ocular cancer. However, let me share with you why the question to be asking might really be: Who is the best person to be treating my ocular melanoma, and/or making the diagnosis? There are more ocular oncologists than ever before today. And the incidence of ocular melanoma remains the same - that means there are still only about 2000 people per year getting diagnosed. Therefore, most of the people practicing ocular oncology have far less experience than their predecessors. Furthermore, there is no "standard of care" treatment in our field. Everyone does what they think is best - taking the eye out, treating with radiation, treating "pre-melanomas" and suspicious nevi, and more. It is IMPERATIVE to get second opinions in this disease and learn as much as you can. Your treatment journey does not end after your radiation treatment. You will depend on your ocular oncologist to make decisions to give you the best possible outcome.

Welcome to Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma, a guide to understanding everything there is to know about your experience with this rare cancer. Learn through the lens of my knowledge and clinical experience as a physician expert and passionate patient advocate. The more you know about ocular melanoma, the better you will do, and the better you will live. Let's go!

For Tara McCannel's resources (including webinar links and link to my book!), visit my website: https://seyhart.com/ocularmelanoma

The content shared on the Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information provided must not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. As a listener, you are responsible for your own health-related decisions and must consider consulting with a healthcare professional for personalized medical advice.

Tara McCannel MD PhD is a an ocular oncologist, vitreoretinal surgeon and co-founder of Seyhart Wellness. She is also the host of the Mind Body MD podcast where she shares her passion for holistic health and wellness.

A prognostic biopsy in ocular melanoma is when a needle is placed within the tumor itself and the sample sent to check for markers that tell us whether the melanoma has a low-likelihood of metastasizing or a high-likelihood of metastasizing. Regardless of your result, the outcomes of these tests are not set in stone. Just because you have low-risk, does not mean you are "home-free" and can discontinue systemic scans and monitoring; and just because you have high-risk results, does not mean that for sure, your melanoma will metastasize in the future. I discuss the reasons for variable test results and how uncertainty in medicine is a good thing for us - it leaves open many possibilities for how we may be able to influence our outcomes.

Welcome to Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma, a guide to understanding everything there is to know about your experience with this rare cancer. Learn through the lens of my knowledge and clinical experience as a physician expert and passionate patient advocate. The more you know about ocular melanoma, the better you will do, and the better you will live. Let's go!

For Tara McCannel's resources (including webinar links and link to my book!), visit my website: https://seyhart.com/ocularmelanoma

The content shared on the Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information provided must not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. As a listener, you are responsible for your own health-related decisions and must consider consulting with a healthcare professional for personalized medical advice.

Tara McCannel MD PhD is a an ocular oncologist, vitreoretinal surgeon and co-founder of Seyhart Wellness. She is also the host of the Mind Body MD podcast where she shares her passion for holistic health and wellness.

Oliver Sacks, MD was a neurologist and writer who gave us Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and other fascinating books that provide a personal insight to neurological conditions. Dr. Sacks was diagnosed with ocular melanoma in 2005. Of the short stories in The Mind's Eye, Persistence of Vision is a detailed account of his own personal experience with his diagnosis and how it affected his vision. He writes about adaption and the critical importance of peripheral vision (which we usually don't formally measure at our eye check-ups). Listen to learn more.

Welcome to Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma, a guide to understanding everything there is to know about your experience with this rare cancer. Learn through the lens of my knowledge and clinical experience as a physician expert and passionate patient advocate. The more you know about ocular melanoma, the better you will do, and the better you will live. Let's go!

For Tara McCannel's resources (including webinar links and link to my book!), visit my website: https://seyhart.com/ocularmelanoma

The content shared on the Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information provided must not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. As a listener, you are responsible for your own health-related decisions and must consider consulting with a healthcare professional for personalized medical advice.

Tara McCannel MD PhD is a an ocular oncologist, vitreoretinal surgeon and co-founder of Seyhart Wellness. She is also the host of the Mind Body MD podcast where she shares her passion for holistic health and wellness.

The most important test that we use to determine that radiation has successfully killed the ocular melanoma is the ocular ultrasound: we want to see either the same size as before, or a reduction in size of the height (the thickness of the tumor) compared to baseline pretreatment. Listen to learn what we do to monitor for a good treatment response, and how we watch carefully for tumor recurrence.

Welcome to Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma, a guide to understanding everything there is to know about your experience with this rare cancer. Learn through the lens of my knowledge and clinical experience as a physician expert and passionate patient advocate. The more you know about ocular melanoma, the better you will do, and the better you will live. Let's go!

For Tara McCannel's resources (including webinar links and link to my book!), visit my website: https://seyhart.com/ocularmelanoma

The content shared on the Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information provided must not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. As a listener, you are responsible for your own health-related decisions and must consider consulting with a healthcare professional for personalized medical advice.

Tara McCannel MD PhD is a an ocular oncologist, vitreoretinal surgeon and co-founder of Seyhart Wellness. She is also the host of the Mind Body MD podcast where she shares her passion for holistic health and wellness.

The most common way that people may lose their vision in ocular melanoma is 1) if they have the eye enucleated (completely removed) or 2) as a side-effect of radiation treatment to kill the tumor. We have a visceral fear of the idea of "vision loss", and this tends to be fueled by our eye care providers, what we believe about our vision, and even our ocular oncologists. In most cases, even if there is the rare case of total vision loss in the affected eye, people are able to adapt, adjust and carry on with their lives. Listen on to hear ways to think about vision loss and not let this be the most important worry of your ocular melanoma journey.

Welcome to Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma, a guide to understanding everything there is to know about your experience with this rare cancer. Learn through the lens of my knowledge and clinical experience as a physician expert and passionate patient advocate. The more you know about ocular melanoma, the better you will do, and the better you will live. Let's go!

For Tara McCannel's resources (including webinar links and link to my book!), visit my website: https://seyhart.com/ocularmelanoma

The content shared on the Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information provided must not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. As a listener, you are responsible for your own health-related decisions and must consider consulting with a healthcare professional for personalized medical advice.

Tara McCannel MD PhD is a an ocular oncologist, vitreoretinal surgeon and co-founder of Seyhart Wellness. She is also the host of the Mind Body MD podcast where she shares her passion for holistic health and wellness.