Patients with rare eye cancer travel cross-country for treatment: ‘This was traumatizing’

Treatment for late-stage ocular melanoma is scarce but a new drug, being reviewed by Health Canada, has patients travelling great distances for a chance at survival. 

When Sue Johnson found out she had uveal (ocular) melanoma 18 months ago, she didn’t know her search for treatment would take her thousands of kilometres from her home in Victoria.

“I’ve done some very hard things in my life. I travelled to different foreign countries to adopt children in the middle of a war. But this was breathtakingly difficult,” the 74-year-old clinical psychologist told Global News.

“This was traumatizing.”

Ocular melanoma is rare.

In Canada, just about 200 cases are diagnosed each year, according to national advocacy group Save your Skin.

It’s also quick and aggressive and often spreads to the liver.

“Quite often when patients are diagnosed with metastatic disease, there isn’t long enough for them to have the opportunity to participate in a treatment or trial,” said Natalie Richardson, operations manager at Save Your Skin.

While ocular melanoma only represents five per cent of melanomas in general, it is responsible for nine per cent of melanoma deaths.