Seeking Answers: Ocular Melanoma Making Strides

Seeking Answers: Ocular Melanoma Making Strides
Inderjit Mehmi, MD
Medical Oncology
The Angeles Clinic & Research Institute, a Cedars-Sinai Affiliate

Melanoma is considered a form of skin cancer because it develops in the melanocytes—the cells in our skin that produce pigment—and because most cases of melanoma occur on the skin. But melanocytes exist in other places in our body, including in our eyes, so melanoma can occur in our eyes, too. Melanoma of the eye is generally called ocular melanoma.

Ocular melanoma is a rare disease—diagnosed in about 2,500 people each year in the U.S.—but it is the most common primary cancer of the eye in adults.