Retinoblastoma (Rb) is the most common eye cancer of early childhood, affecting one or both eyes. Usually forming in the first two years of life, some babies are born with cancer already growing.
Cure is above 98% in high-income countries, where most research takes place and the focus is saving sight. Most children with retinoblastoma live in low- and middle-income countries, where awareness and access to timely, appropriate medical care is limited. These discrepancies have led to a global survival rate estimated to be less than 40%.
Rb has lifelong impacts including sight loss, increased risk of second primary cancers, and risk of their children also having eye cancer.
Low awareness, difficulty accessing to specialist care and tailored support, and limited research globally leads to preventable stress and trauma, and suboptimal outcomes for many children, adult survivors, and families.
Thousands of curable children and adult survivors die each year.
Everyone deserves the best opportunities to overcome cancer, and to have a good quality of life during treatment, beyond cure, and when cure is not possible.
World Eye Cancer Hope helps improve early diagnosis, advance medical care, and meet the unique needs of affected families and survivors worldwide.
Our Mission
World Eye Cancer Hope (WE C Hope) is committed to raising awareness and education around early diagnosis of retinoblastoma (Rb). We advocate for timely access to treatment, evidence-based care, and tailored psychosocial support for affected children, adult survivors, their families and healthcare providers around the world.
We achieve this by:
Educating the public and healthcare workers about retinoblastoma and second primary cancers to achieve early detection, timely diagnosis, and rapid referral to specialist care.
Establishing family support programs that provide patients, families, and survivors a space to connect through online communities, events, and the One Retinoblastoma World conference.
Empowering families, survivors, researchers, the global eye care and cancer communities, the imaging industry, and policymakers to develop sustainable, high-quality, evidence-based, patient-centered care.
Our Values
The Patient First: We prioritize the lifelong wellbeing and quality of care for every child, survivor, and family affected by retinoblastoma.
Excellence in Evidence-Based Care: We promote innovative, sustainable, evidence-based, and practical solutions that improve retinoblastoma care and maximize available resources worldwide.
Equity, Inclusion, and Access: We champion equitable access to diagnosis, treatment, psychosocial support, and lifelong care, regardless of geography, identity, disability, or socioeconomic status.
Community: We unite families, survivors, clinicians, researchers, advocates, industry leaders, policymakers, and supporters to improve outcomes and build hope worldwide. Together, we foster hope, reduce isolation, share knowledge and lived experience, and promote access to practical and psychosocial support throughout life.
Sustainability: We promote realistic, patient-focused, and sustainable retinoblastoma care programs supported by reliable resources, community leadership, and environmental responsibility in all communities across both resource-rich and resource-limited countries.
Organizational Goals
Advocacy: We amplify the voices of families and survivors as leaders, advocates, and partners in research, policy, and care development. Patient advocacy promotes systems that improve lifelong outcomes for all affected by retinoblastoma.
Awareness and Timely Diagnosis: We promote early detection of retinoblastoma to the public and medical professionals through education, advocacy, and access to training resources and diagnostic tools. The signs and symptoms of retinoblastoma include:
- Leukocoria: a white glow in the pupil, also known as “the glow.”
- Strabismus: crossed eye.
- Light sensitivity.
- Red, painful, or swollen eye.
Child Life: We promote compassionate, developmentally appropriate psychosocial care that helps children and families navigate the emotional, social, and practical challenges of retinoblastoma. Through child life techniques, patients, caregivers, and medical professionals build coping skills that reduce stress, improve understanding, and make medical procedures more manageable for everyone involved.
Collaboration: We believe teamwork, shared knowledge, mutual respect, and partnerships with organizations committed to improving outcomes for childhood cancer survivors accelerate progress toward sustainable, high-quality lifelong care. We foster a supportive environment that promotes collaboration, personal growth, shared learning, resilience, and celebration of success.
Survivorship: Through education and community support, we empower survivors of retinoblastoma to lead and advocate for their own lifelong follow-up care including genetic testing and counseling, mental and physical healthcare, and hereditary and second primary cancer risks associated with the RB1 gene change.
