Prof. Dr. Elif Betül Türkoğlu — Ocular Oncologist and Cataract Surgeon

Prof. Dr. Elif Betül Türkoğlu is a Professor of Ophthalmology, ocular oncologist and eye surgeon in Antalya, Türkiye, with more than 20 years in ophthalmology since she began her residency in 2005. She diagnoses and treats tumors of the eye and its surroundings in adults and children, performs cataract and lens replacement surgery, including complex cases, and operates on the eyelids, tear ducts and orbit. She held the ranks of assistant professor (2014), associate professor (2017) and professor (2022) at the Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine and now sees patients at her private practice in the Muratpaşa district of Antalya.

• 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)

Areas of expertise

Prof. Türkoğlu's clinical work covers three connected fields.

Ocular oncology in adults and children. This includes tumors inside the eye — such as uveal melanoma, suspicious pigmented spots at the back of the eye, retinoblastoma in young children, lymphoma, metastases and benign tumors — as well as tumors of the conjunctiva on the surface of the eye, eyelid tumors and orbital tumors in the tissues around and behind the eye. Her work covers examination and imaging, biopsy, removal of tumors and, when it cannot be avoided, removal of the eye with an orbital implant.

Cataract and lens surgery. She performs cataract surgery and lens replacement, including complex cataract surgery — for example in eyes that have already had vitrectomy (surgery on the vitreous gel and retina), the subject of her specialty thesis.

Oculoplastic surgery. Operations on the eyelids (eyelid surgery), the tear drainage system and the orbit, and eye prosthesis surgery.

Training and career

Prof. Türkoğlu completed her ophthalmology residency in 2010 with a specialty thesis on the results of cataract surgery — phacoemulsification with an anterior chamber maintainer — in eyes that had previously undergone vitrectomy.

She later left the university and moved to private practice in Antalya.

International training

Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia (2015–2016)

From 2015 to 2016 Prof. Türkoğlu was a research fellow at the Ocular Oncology Service of Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, working with Dr. Carol L. Shields. Her papers from this period deal with photodynamic therapy as a primary treatment for small choroidal melanoma, the natural history of benign retinal lesions that can resemble tumors, and unusual presentations of tumors and tumor look-alikes. In total she co-authored five papers with Dr. Shields between 2016 and 2021, including articles in Retina and JAMA Ophthalmology.

National Cancer Center of Japan, Tokyo (2019)

In 2019 she completed an observership in ocular oncology at the National Cancer Center of Japan in Tokyo, focusing on intra-arterial chemotherapy for retinoblastoma: chemotherapy delivered through a fine catheter into the artery that supplies the eye. Doctors in Tokyo began developing an early form of this approach, selective ophthalmic artery infusion, in the late 1980s. Today the treatment is given by specialist teams that include interventional neuroradiologists; the page on intra-arterial and intravitreal chemotherapy explains how it works.

Research

Prof. Türkoğlu's research focuses on how eye tumors are imaged and treated, and on the results of eye surgery. She has published 41 papers indexed in PubMed (2013–2024), 17 of them as first author, and more than 80 journal articles in total; her Akdeniz University AVESİS profile lists more than 130 scientific publications and presentations. Scopus records about 500 citations of her work and an h-index of 13, meaning that 13 of her papers have each been cited at least 13 times.

Key papers, in plain language:

• Photodynamic therapy as primary treatment for small choroidal melanoma (Retina, 2019; first author). At Wills Eye, 12 patients with small choroidal melanoma were treated with light-activated verteporfin instead of radiation. Two-thirds of the tumors regressed completely after one to three sessions over a mean follow-up of about five years, and vision was stable or better in every eye; tumors that did not respond were then controlled with thermotherapy or plaque radiotherapy.
• Photodynamic therapy after CyberKnife radiotherapy for choroidal melanoma (Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy, 2022; first author). In 16 tumors, mean thickness fell from 3.9 to 2.3 mm, and fluid under the retina cleared or improved in 13 of 16 eyes over about 45 months; three eyes later had to be removed because the tumor recurred.
• Long-term results of photodynamic therapy in intraocular tumors (Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy, 2023; co-author). In 15 patients — 10 with choroidal hemangioma, 3 with melanoma and 2 with choroidal osteoma — mean tumor thickness fell from 3.6 to 2.3 mm at about 33 months, and vision was the same or better in two-thirds.
• Optic nerve hemangioblastoma in von Hippel-Lindau disease (JAMA Ophthalmology, 2016; first author). An image report of a rare spontaneous change in a benign vascular tumor of the optic nerve in a patient with von Hippel-Lindau disease, an inherited tumor syndrome.
• Torpedo maculopathy alongside retinoblastoma (Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy, 2021; first author). In a child with retinoblastoma, hand-held optical coherence tomography (OCT) showed that a second spot near the center of the retina was a harmless congenital lesion rather than tumor, which helped avoid unnecessary treatment.
• Choroidal thickness after cataract surgery (Clinical Ophthalmology, 2016; co-author). OCT scans in 30 patients showed that the layers at the back of the eye became slightly thicker one month after uncomplicated cataract surgery — a reason to take new baseline scans after the operation.

Her cataract work also includes first-author papers on YAG laser capsulotomy in people with diabetes and on cataract surgery in Alport syndrome, and a presentation on sutureless scleral fixation of intraocular lenses at the 2019 congress of the Asia-Pacific Association of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (APACRS) in Kyoto. The full list, grouped by topic with PubMed links, is on the research and publications page, and the treatment behind several of these studies is explained on the page about photodynamic therapy for eye tumors.

Retinoblastoma research project

In 2015–2016 Prof. Türkoğlu was principal investigator of a research project on intravitreal melphalan chemotherapy for resistant or recurrent retinoblastoma, recorded in her Akdeniz University academic profile. Intravitreal chemotherapy means injecting a very small dose of a chemotherapy drug into the vitreous — the clear gel that fills the eye — to reach tumor "seeds" floating in the gel, which drugs given through the bloodstream or the eye's artery reach poorly. Her later papers on retinoblastoma describe how OCT can show the internal structure of these tumors and help separate them from harmless look-alike lesions in young children.

Teaching and academic service

At Akdeniz University, Prof. Türkoğlu supervised two ophthalmology specialty theses — on intraocular tumors (2018) and on ocular albinism (2022) — and served on specialty thesis juries in 2017, 2021 and 2022. She taught graduate courses on eye examination methods, ocular anatomy, and refractive errors and accommodation, and ocular anatomy to medical students. In 2021 she wrote two book chapters in Turkish: one on cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection of the eye, in a Turkish consensus report on the diagnosis and treatment of CMV, and one on the epidemiology and prevention of eye infections, in the education series of the Turkish Ophthalmological Association.

Professional memberships

Prof. Türkoğlu is a member of the following professional societies:

• Turkish Ophthalmological Association (TOD) — education officer of the Ocular Infections Unit and member of the Ocular Oncology Unit
• International Society of Ocular Oncology (ISOO)
• American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO)
• European Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS)
• American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS)
• European Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ESOPRS)
• Turkic Republics Ophthalmology Association

Languages

Prof. Türkoğlu speaks Turkish and fluent English, so consultations and messages can be in either language. If you or a relative prefer Russian, an interpreter can be arranged in advance — see the information for international patients.

How consultations work

A first consultation starts with your history and any reports or images you bring, followed by measurement of vision and eye pressure and an examination of both eyes, usually with dilating drops. Depending on the question, imaging is added: ultrasound, optical coherence tomography (OCT), wide-field photographs of the retina or angiography. The page on how eye tumors are diagnosed explains each test. Before cataract or lens surgery, precise measurements of the eye are taken to plan the lens.

Prof. Türkoğlu then explains the findings in plain language, discusses the options — including observation where that is appropriate — and plans treatment with you. Where a method needs specialized facilities, such as radiotherapy, intra-arterial chemotherapy or cancer medicines, it is delivered together with the relevant specialist teams.

Young children often cannot keep still for a detailed examination. A child with a suspected tumor may therefore need an examination under anesthesia, which allows the retina to be examined and photographed completely.

If you live abroad, you can start by sending your records for a remote review. You then learn whether an examination in Antalya is advisable and what it would involve, and your results and plan are explained so that you can share them with your doctor at home.