Eye Cancer Treatment in Turkey: Ocular Oncology in Antalya

Being told that there may be a tumor in or around the eye is frightening, and much of what you find online is either very general or written for specialists. This page is a calm, practical overview of eye cancer treatment in Turkey with Prof. Dr. Elif Betül Türkoğlu, an ocular oncologist in Antalya: which tumors occur, how they are recognized and measured, which eye-preserving treatments are available today, and how patients from abroad can ask for an opinion.

Two points are worth knowing from the start. Eye cancer is rare, and many growths in and around the eye are benign. And modern eye tumor treatment aims to control the disease while keeping the eye, and as much sight as possible, whenever that is safe.

What is eye cancer?

"Eye cancer" is an umbrella term for malignant tumors of the eyeball and of the tissues around it: the eyelids, the conjunctiva (the clear membrane over the white of the eye), the tear gland and the orbit, the bony socket that holds the eye. The medical field that deals with them is ocular oncology. Doctors group eye tumors by where they start, because the location determines the symptoms, the tests and the treatment.

Tumors inside the eye

Uveal melanoma is the most common cancer that starts inside the adult eye. It grows from pigment cells of the uvea: the iris (the colored ring), the ciliary body just behind it, and the choroid, the blood-rich layer beneath the retina. About 90% arise in the choroid, 6–7% in the ciliary body and 2–5% in the iris. It is rare — in US registry data about 5.6 people per million are diagnosed each year, at a median age of 63. Although it shares a name with skin melanoma, it is driven by different gene changes and spreads through the bloodstream, mainly to the liver. The details are on the pages about uveal melanoma, its prognosis, genetic testing and biopsy and follow-up for metastasis.

Most pigmented spots inside the eye are not cancer. A choroidal nevus, a "freckle" at the back of the eye, is common and only rarely changes, and most brown spots on the iris are harmless nevi too; the page on iris melanoma explains which features deserve a closer look.

Other tumors inside the eye include vitreoretinal lymphoma, which can imitate inflammation (uveitis) in older adults, and choroidal metastasis, the spread of a cancer from elsewhere in the body, most often the breast or lung. Benign tumors such as choroidal hemangioma, retinal hemangioblastoma in von Hippel–Lindau disease or astrocytic hamartoma do not spread but can still threaten vision; they are covered under benign intraocular tumors.

In children, the main cancer inside the eye is retinoblastoma, which develops from immature cells of the retina. It affects roughly 1 in 15,000–20,000 babies and is usually diagnosed in the first years of life, often after a parent notices a white glow in the pupil in a photograph. Retinoblastoma is highly curable when found early: in a global study of more than 4,000 children, 3-year survival was 99.5% in high-income countries but 57.3% in low-income countries, where diagnosis often comes late and specialized care is harder to reach. See retinoblastoma, a white pupil in photos and genetics and family screening.

Tumors on the surface of the eye

The conjunctiva can develop pigmented, fleshy or gelatinous growths. In a series of 5,002 conjunctival tumors reported by Shields and colleagues, the single most common diagnosis was a benign nevus (23%). The main cancers are ocular surface squamous neoplasia (OSSN), which ranges from precancerous surface change to invasive squamous cell carcinoma and is linked to sunlight and, in younger people, to HIV; conjunctival melanoma, which often grows out of flat acquired pigmentation and, unlike uveal melanoma, tends to spread first to lymph nodes in front of the ear or in the neck; and conjunctival lymphoma, a smooth salmon-pink patch that is usually slow-growing. See conjunctival tumors, OSSN and conjunctival melanoma.

Eyelid tumors

Most eyelid lumps are harmless: chalazia, cysts or papillomas. Among eyelid cancers, basal cell carcinoma accounts for about 80–90%. It grows slowly and almost never spreads, but a neglected tumor can invade deeply, particularly at the inner corner of the eye. Squamous cell carcinoma, sebaceous gland carcinoma (which can imitate a recurring chalazion or one-sided blepharitis), melanoma and Merkel cell carcinoma are less common and more aggressive. Treatment combines complete removal, with the margins checked under the microscope, and reconstruction of the eyelid; see eyelid cancer and eyelid surgery and reconstruction.

Tumors of the orbit (eye socket)

The orbit contains the eye muscles, nerves, fat and the tear gland, and many different lesions can grow there. In adults they include lymphoma, benign vascular lesions (cavernous venous malformation), tear-gland tumors, meningioma and metastases. Thyroid eye disease, which is not a tumor, is the most frequent cause of a bulging eye in adults and an important look-alike. In children most orbital masses are benign, such as dermoid cysts and infantile hemangiomas, but a rapidly bulging eye needs urgent imaging to exclude rhabdomyosarcoma; with modern chemotherapy and radiotherapy, about 97% of children with this tumor in the orbit survive at least 5 years. See orbital tumors.

Eye tumors in adults and in children

Childhood eye cancer differs from adult disease in almost every respect: the tumor types, the genetics (retinoblastoma can be inherited), the need for examinations under general anesthesia and the close partnership with pediatric oncologists. Prof. Türkoğlu sees both adults and children.

Which eye tumors are most common, and how are they treated?

The table summarizes the main tumor types. Treatment is always individual; the "typical first treatments" column shows common starting points, not fixed rules.

What are the symptoms of eye cancer?

Symptoms depend on where the tumor grows, and many eye tumors cause none at all: about 30% of uveal melanomas are discovered during a routine dilated eye examination before the person has noticed anything. When symptoms do occur, they may include:

• blurred or distorted vision, flashes of light, new floaters or a shadow in part of the visual field;
• a new or growing dark spot on the iris, or a change in the shape of the pupil;
• a growth or colored patch on the white of the eye;
• an eyelid lump that bleeds, crusts, causes loss of lashes or keeps coming back;
• a bulging or displaced eye, double vision or a swollen eyelid;
• in a child, a white pupil (often seen first in flash photos), a new squint or a red, painful eye.

Each of these has far more common, harmless causes, but none should be ignored. The guide to eye cancer symptoms explains each sign and how quickly to act.

How is eye cancer diagnosed?

Unlike most cancers, many eye tumors can be diagnosed without a biopsy. The specialist looks at the tumor directly through the dilated pupil and measures it with several complementary imaging methods, known as multimodal imaging:

• wide-field color photography records size, color and borders, and reveals growth when images are compared over time;
• ultrasound (A- and B-scan) measures thickness and internal structure, while ultrasound biomicroscopy and anterior-segment OCT examine the iris, ciliary body and ocular surface;
• optical coherence tomography (OCT) shows fluid and fine changes in the retina;
• fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography show the tumor's blood vessels;
• MRI, and sometimes CT, assess the orbit and any extension outside the eye.

A biopsy is used selectively: when the diagnosis is uncertain (for example lymphoma or metastasis), to obtain cells for genetic prognostic tests in uveal melanoma, and routinely for eyelid, conjunctival and many orbital tumors. Retinoblastoma is diagnosed without a biopsy, because a needle could spread tumor cells, and MRI is preferred to CT in these children to avoid radiation. For uveal melanoma, staging includes liver imaging, although metastases are detectable at diagnosis in only about 2–3% of patients. Read more about how eye tumors are diagnosed and how eye cancers are staged.

How is eye cancer treated today?

Treatment follows a clear order of priorities: control the cancer and protect life, then keep the eye, then preserve as much vision as possible. Since the 1970s the balance has shifted firmly toward eye-preserving care. In US cancer registries, the share of people with uveal melanoma treated with radiation alone rose from about 1% in the late 1970s to 58% in 2017–2020, while treatment by surgery alone fell from 93% to 21%. The Collaborative Ocular Melanoma Study (COMS) showed that this is safe: for medium-sized tumors, survival after iodine plaque radiotherapy was the same as after removal of the eye, and 85% of plaque-treated patients still had their eye 5 years later.

The main options, explained in modern eye cancer treatments, are:

• Precisely targeted radiation: plaque brachytherapy, in which a small radioactive disc is stitched temporarily to the outside of the eye, and external methods such as proton beam therapy and stereotactic radiotherapy.
• Light and heat: photodynamic therapy, which activates a light-sensitive drug inside the tumor's vessels, transpupillary thermotherapy and laser, for selected small tumors and benign vascular tumors.
• Chemotherapy delivered to the eye: intra-arterial and intravitreal chemotherapy for retinoblastoma, chemotherapy eye drops for surface tumors, and injections into the eye for lymphoma.
• Surgery: removal of surface, eyelid and orbital tumors with margin control, local resection of selected iris and ciliary body tumors and, when it is the safest choice, removal of the eye with an orbital implant and a custom artificial eye. Eye tumor surgery: what to expect explains anesthesia and recovery.
• Systemic treatment: immunotherapy, targeted drugs and chemotherapy given by medical and pediatric oncologists — for example tebentafusp for metastatic uveal melanoma in people with the HLA-A*02:01 tissue type (see metastasis and follow-up).
• Clinical trials: as of September 2026, several new eye-preserving approaches are being tested in phase 3 trials; they are investigational and available only within those studies.

Prof. Türkoğlu evaluates your case, explains the options and plans treatment with you. Where a method needs specialized facilities — radiotherapy, intra-arterial chemotherapy or systemic cancer drugs — it is delivered together with the relevant specialist teams, and the eye is followed closely throughout. Late effects such as a radiation cataract can be treated later; see cataract surgery in complex eyes.

Why see an ocular oncologist?

Eye cancers are uncommon: the American Cancer Society expects about 3,200 new cancers of the eye and orbit in the whole United States in 2026, and childhood eye cancer is rarer still. A general eye clinic may therefore see very few cases, while an eye cancer specialist sees them routinely. This matters for practical reasons:

• Look-alikes are frequent. Harmless lesions such as nevi, bleeding or inflammation can imitate melanoma, while some cancers imitate harmless conditions: sebaceous carcinoma can look like a chalazion that keeps coming back, lymphoma like chronic uveitis, early surface cancer like a pterygium. Careful measurement, repeated imaging and knowing when to take a biopsy prevent both overtreatment and delay.
• Technique affects recurrence. Surface tumors are removed with a "no-touch" technique and freezing of the margins; an eye that may contain a tumor is removed intact rather than eviscerated; a tear-gland tumor that looks like a pleomorphic adenoma is excised whole rather than biopsied.
• Care is multidisciplinary. Radiation oncologists and physicists plan plaques and beams, ophthalmic pathologists and geneticists interpret tissue, medical and pediatric oncologists treat disease elsewhere in the body, interventional neuroradiologists deliver intra-arterial chemotherapy and ocularists make artificial eyes. The ocular oncologist brings these steps together around the eye.
• Experience counts. Direct studies of case volume in eye cancer are scarce, but evidence from other rare cancers points the same way: in a French nationwide study of 29,497 people with sarcoma, surgery at reference centers with specialist tumor boards was linked to fewer local relapses and roughly a third lower risk of death.

Questions worth asking any specialist are collected in how to choose an ocular oncologist. Ophthalmologists can find referral criteria on the page for referring doctors.

About Prof. Dr. Elif Betül Türkoğlu

Prof. Dr. Elif Betül Türkoğlu is a Professor of Ophthalmology and ocular oncologist who has worked in ophthalmology for more than 20 years, since 2005. Her academic career was at Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine in Antalya — assistant professor in 2014, associate professor in 2017 and full professor in 2022 — before she moved to her private practice in the city. Her ocular oncology training includes a one-year research fellowship at the Ocular Oncology Service of Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia (2015–2016), working with Dr. Carol L. Shields, and an observership at the National Cancer Center of Japan in Tokyo (2019). She was principal investigator of a research project on intravitreal melphalan for resistant or recurrent retinoblastoma, and her 41 PubMed-indexed papers include first-author studies of photodynamic therapy for small choroidal melanoma (Retina, 2019) and after CyberKnife radiotherapy (2022). She treats adults and children with intraocular, conjunctival, eyelid and orbital tumors and also performs oculoplastic, cataract and lens surgery. See her full profile and publications.

• Professorof Ophthalmology since 2022 · Akdeniz University
• 20+ yearsin ophthalmology, since 2005
• Wills Eyeocular oncology fellowship, USA, 2015–16
• 41papers in PubMed · h-index 13 (Scopus)

How can I arrange eye cancer treatment in Turkey from abroad?

If you are looking for an ocular oncologist in Turkey, the usual first step is a remote second opinion. You send your records; Prof. Türkoğlu reviews them and explains what the findings suggest, whether further tests are needed and whether an examination in Antalya is advisable. Helpful records include:

• a short summary: age, symptoms and their dates, previous eye or cancer history and general health;
• clinical photographs, including older images for comparison;
• ultrasound, OCT and angiography images with their measurements;
• MRI or CT scans as original DICOM files, not only the written reports;
• pathology reports (and slides, if available) and any genetic test results;
• details of any treatment so far.

A remote review cannot replace an examination in every case, but it often clarifies the next step. If a visit is recommended, it is planned in advance so that you know which tests are needed and how long to stay. The practice is in the Muratpaşa district of central Antalya, about 20–30 minutes by car from Antalya Airport. BergemHealth, an Antalya-based medical travel company and licensed travel agency (TÜRSAB license A-8469), can arrange transfers, accommodation, interpreters and scheduling; medical care is provided by the treating doctors. Practical details are on the international patients page, and eye cancer treatment cost in Turkey explains what determines the cost of care.

Explore eye tumors and conditions

Each condition page covers symptoms, tests, treatment options and outcomes in more depth.

• Eye cancer · ConditionsUveal melanomaThe most common cancer arising inside the eye in adults: how it is diagnosed and staged, why most eyes can be saved, and what follow-up involves.Read more
• Eye cancer · ConditionsIris melanomaMost spots on the iris are harmless freckles, nevi or cysts. These are the signs that suggest melanoma, and how it is treated.Read more
• Eye cancer · ConditionsChoroidal nevusA 'freckle' at the back of the eye is common and usually harmless. These are the signs that deserve a specialist look.Read more
• Eye cancer · ConditionsRetinoblastomaThe most common cancer inside the eye in young children: warning signs, diagnosis, eye-saving treatments and lifelong family care.Read more
• Eye cancer · ConditionsConjunctival tumorsSpots and growths on the white of the eye: how benign, precancerous and malignant lesions are told apart and treated.Read more
• Eye cancer · ConditionsEyelid cancerMost eyelid cancers are basal cell carcinomas, curable with complete removal. Warning signs, surgery and eyelid reconstruction explained.Read more
• Eye cancer · ConditionsOrbital tumorsA growth in the eye socket can push the eye forward. Adult and childhood types, the thyroid eye disease lookalike, scans, biopsy and surgery.Read more
• Eye cancer · ConditionsIntraocular lymphomaLymphoma inside the eye often looks like stubborn uveitis. How it is recognized, confirmed with a biopsy and treated with the oncology team.Read more
• Eye cancer · ConditionsChoroidal metastasisCancer from the breast, lung or elsewhere can reach the eye. The symptoms, the tests and how sight is protected alongside cancer care.Read more
• Eye cancer · ConditionsChoroidal hemangiomaA benign blood-vessel tumor under the retina that can blur vision. How it is told apart from melanoma and treated with PDT.Read more
• Eye cancer · ConditionsIntraocular tumorsNot every spot inside the eye is cancer. A guide to benign intraocular tumors, melanoma lookalikes and the syndromes some of them signal.Read more

Guides for patients and families

Practical guides on prognosis, genetics, follow-up and cost, plus a plain answer to the question is eye cancer curable?

• Eye cancer · Patient guideEye cancer symptomsWhich changes in vision, on the eye's surface, on the eyelids or in a child's pupil can signal a tumor, and which need urgent care.Read more
• Uveal melanoma · Patient guidePrognosis and survivalSurvival figures explained clearly and kindly: what they mean, what influences them, and how your own risk can be estimated.Read more
• Uveal melanoma · Patient guideGenetic testing and biopsyWhy a tiny biopsy is sometimes taken, what class 1 and class 2 results mean, and when inherited BAP1 testing is advised.Read more
• Uveal melanoma · Patient guideMetastasis and follow-upHow often scans are needed after eye melanoma, and how spread to the liver is treated today, including approved drugs and trials.Read more
• Retinoblastoma · For parentsWhite pupil in photosNoticed a white glow in your child's eye in a photo? It has several possible causes, some harmless, but every child needs a prompt eye examination.Read more
• Retinoblastoma · GeneticsRetinoblastoma geneticsHeritable or not? What RB1 testing shows, how brothers, sisters and future children are screened, and why survivors need lifelong care.Read more
• Eye cancer · Patient guideTreatment costsWhy eye cancer care has no fixed price, what drives the cost, and how to request a personalized written estimate.Read more