Many of the diagnoses came decades after the former students attended the university, located in Auburn, Alabama. When three women who’d been friends in college all developed ocular melanoma (also called uveal melanoma) in recent years, one started a Facebook group to search for others who may have also been affected.
Researchers have also discovered that another 18 patients living in Huntersville, North Carolina—located outside of Charlotte, about 400 miles from Auburn University—have been diagnosed with the disease, as well.
Scientists don’t know why the cancer has struck so many people in these two towns, but they’re hoping to find out. Leading the charge are researchers from the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, who are studying patients from both geographic areas in hopes of learning more about what they have in common.
What is ocular melanoma?
Ocular or uveal melanoma is a type of cancer that’s related to subcutaneous melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. It occurs when cells called melanocytes—which provide pigment and color to the iris—mutate and form tumors.
These tumors can form in the iris (the colored area surrounding the pupil) or in other parts of the eye’s middle layer, known as the uvea or the uveal tract.
What causes ocular melanoma?
Unlike subcutaneous melanoma, which is sometimes linked to sun damage, exposure to solar rays has not been shown to raise the risk of uveal melanoma. In fact, doctors don’t really know what causes the disease, and they think that most cases arise purely by chance.
Symptoms of ocular melanoma
Juleigh Green, the first of three college friends to be diagnosed with eye cancer, told CBS News that seeing “unusual flashes of light” was her first sign something was wrong. She was diagnosed at age 27.
A few years later, in 2001, another friend was diagnosed at age 31. “I was just seeing some mild flashes of light for, say, 7 to 10 days,” Allison Allred told CBS News. Ashley McCrary was the third friend to be diagnosed, after finding black spots in her iris.
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