Retinoblastoma historical perspective

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1],Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Simrat Sarai, M.D. [2]

Overview

Retinoblastoma was first described in 1864 by Virchow.

Famous Cases

There has been plenty of controvery over the discovery of Retinoblastoma. A man named Virchow first described the tumor as a retinal glioma in 1864. About 35 years later, Flexner and Wintersteiner noted that many similiarities existed between tumor rosettes and photoreceptors of the adult retina. It wasn't until the 1920s that Verhoeff, another top scientist, claimed that the tumor arose from embryonic retinal cells and hence proposed the name "retinoblastoma." The debate on histogenesis remained dormant for several decades until the late 1960s. It was at this time that Ts'o and associates studied the structural features of other similar tumors and found definate evidence of photoreceptor differentiation. These studies put the controversy to rest until Kyritsis et al demonstrated that cultured retinoblastoma cells could have altered glial or neuronal differentiation dependant on the type of culture media. More recent immunocytochemical techniques have also shown several distinctions among such undifferentiated and differentiated cells. As a result of this extensive research, we now understand that retinoblastoma is a cancer steming from the over-production of these immature retinal cells