Cancer Biology of Retinoblastoma

Many children with the childhood cancer, Retinoblastoma, have surgery to remove the tumor and sometimes the entire eye. The purpose of this study is to collect the extra tissue from patients who undergo tumor removal for laboratory experiments that will help us understand not only what occurs in retinoblastoma cells but also how cells normally function. Some of these studies will include an evaluation of how cells control the way that genes are expressed, how cells "know" to become retinal cells, how cells remain retinal cells, how cells lose their identity as retinal cells, what changes make retinoblastoma cells different from normal retinal cells, and what changes make some retinoblastomas worse than others.