Canadian mom spots astonishingly subtle sign of eye cancer in photo of toddler – would you notice it?

A mother revealed on social media how she spotted her toddler’s rare eye cancer.

Steph, from Canada, took a flash photo of her 16-month-old daughter, Summer Raine, in 2021 when she caught something strange. 

While one eye appeared red from the flash, the other had a white, cloudy glow.  ‘I knew something was wrong,’ Steph said in a recent TikTok video. 

Steph rushed her toddler to their local emergency room in Toronto, where doctors found retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer that grows in the back of the eye due to a genetic mutation. 

Summer underwent three months of chemotherapy, though she did not respond to the treatment. She had to have her left eye removed and is now cancer free

Though rare, retinoblastoma the most common eye cancer in children, with about 200 to 300 patients diagnosed per year, most of whom are younger than two. 

Three in four patients, like Summer, have retinoblastoma in just one eye. 

Summer immediately started three months of chemotherapy, though her tumor did not respond to the treatment.

 To keep the cancer from spreading, doctors decided to remove her left eye. 

This eliminated all evidence of the disease, and she is still cancer free three years later.  

Despite retinoblastoma being so rare, it generally has a good prognosis, with a 96 percent survival rate. 

Symptoms include having a white pupil, a cloudy eye, misaligned eyes looking toward the ears or nose, different colored irises and a red and inflamed eyeball. 

Steph is now focused on spreading awareness of retinoblastoma to other parents.  

‘Please remember retinoblastoma is rare but make sure to check your baby’s eyes with a flash,’ Steph wrote in a caption of one of her videos. 

‘Retinas should not be white.’