How Telemedicine and Centralized Care Changed the Natural History of Retinoblastoma in a Developing Country: Analysis of 478 Patients

To evaluate the efficacy of integrating a telemedicine-based twinning partnership and centralized care for retinoblastoma on survival and eye salvage. Four hundred seventy-eight retinoblastoma patients treated at a tertiary referral cancer center (King Hussein Cancer Centre [KHCC]) from 2003 through 2019. Four hundred seventy-eight retinoblastoma patients treated at KHCC after implementing a telemedicine-based program with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. We reviewed the outcomes of retinoblastoma patients who were treated at KHCC after implementing a telemedicine-based eye salvage program with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and we compared that with outcomes for retinoblastoma patients who were treated before implementing a telemedicine-based retinoblastoma service at KHCC. We analyzed patient demographics, clinical characteristics, treatments received, consultation type and duration, and long-term patient outcomes before and after implementing the twinning program. Over 17 years, 813 eyes from 478 children with retinoblastoma were treated at KHCC. Three hundred thirty-five patients (70%) had bilateral disease. Six patients (4%) with unilateral disease and 66 patients (20%) with bilateral disease had a family history of retinoblastoma. After the twinning program was established in 2003, the mortality rate decreased from 38% to 5% (P