In Egypt, retinoblastoma patients present more frequently with advanced disease. There is an ever-increasing need to develop a national team dedicated to studying disease significance and formulating a national awareness program.

Neuroblastoma (NBL) in infants has the potential to regress/mature spontaneously. The literature showed some cases, subjected to initial observation, with reasonable outcome. Deferring/avoiding active treatment was investigated in selected favorable NBL cases. Patients enrolled on the watch and see strategy (W&S) had small primary tumor, localized stages 1 to 2, uncomplicated stage 4s, or stage 3. Tissue biopsy was not mandatory for infants below 6 months with localized mass. On progression, active intervention was indicated according to disease stage and risk after biological characterization. In total, 32 patients were enrolled on W&S strategy; male/female:2.6/1. Twelve had stages 1 to 2, 16 had stage 4s, and 4 were stage 3. Primary adrenal site was reported in 85% patients, and 65% patients had small mass (≤5 cm). Five-year overall and event-free survival were 100% and 80.9±7%, respectively, with a 43-month median follow-up duration. Spontaneous total/near total resolution of mass occurred in 50% patients. Median time to regression was 1.7 months, and 20.7 months until resolution. Only 19% patients witnessed progression; median time to progression was 4.8 months. W&S is a reasonable approach for localized and uncomplicated stages 3 and 4S NBL. Extended tumor size is a newly investigated entity in the present study. All progressive cases were safely rescued with 100% survival outcome.

Objectives We aimed to study the clinical state and prognosis of patients with unilateral retinoblastoma who were being treated at a paediatric comprehensive cancer centre in a limited-resource country, to assess the different phases of treatment and the success of different, more complex real-life models. Subjects In this retrospective study, we created a snapshot of our retinoblastoma database for the period between 2007 and 2015. Patients whose data were included in the study were followed up until 2016. Out of a total of 744 screened patients, we included data of 248 patients who had been diagnosed with unilateral retinoblastoma. Results As classified as per the International Retinoblastoma Classification, 1 patient presented with group A, 21 with group B, 39 with group C, 104 with group D and 83 with group E retinoblastoma. Chemotherapy was the initial line of treatment in 115 patients and enucleation in 133 others. Later, 141 patients (56.9%) required further management. Patients had a mean ocular survival time of 20.8 months. Nine patients developed extraocular disease at a later stage of management: five after upfront enucleation and four after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Mean overall survival time stood at 90.2 months. Four and three deaths were recorded in groups D and E, respectively. A single patient died in the initial chemotherapy arm, while six passed away in the initial enucleation arm. Conclusion Our study highlights the importance of initial chemotherapy and close follow-up after enucleation of classes D and E affected eyes even in absence of germline mutations.