Last month, I attended a conference for physicians presented by Dr. Jesse Berry, an associate professor of ophthalmology at USC and the director of the Ocular Oncology and the Retinoblastoma Programs at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, who reminded us how important it is to have yearly dilated eye exams.

Below is Sam’s case, which illustrates just that.

Sam was a tall, blond, blue-eyed computer engineer. When, at the age of 66, he started having worsening blurry vision in his right eye, he made an appointment to see an ophthalmologist. The ophthalmologist recommended dilating Sam’s pupils so that the peripheral retinas could be examined. Sam couldn’t remember the last time he had his eyes dilated. It had been years.

As soon as the ophthalmologist looked in Sam’s retinas through his dilated pupils, she knew something was wrong. A large, 21-millimeter diameter (almost one-inch diameter) blackish area with uneven borders was seen at the back of Sam’s right eye.

After an urgent referral to a specialist and many types of ocular imaging, the ophthalmologist told Sam the bad news: Sam had an aggressive cancer of the eye called choroidal melanoma. Given the size of the tumor, the best treatment was to remove his right eye (a surgery called eye enucleation). Sam was devastated but went ahead with the surgery.

Unfortunately, a few months after removing Sam’s eye, the aggressive cancer spread to Sam’s liver. Sam knew the prognosis was grim, and he refused to be treated. He passed away later that year.

Yes, Sam would probably still be alive today, and he could have avoided losing his eye if he had undergone dilated eye exams every year after age 60, as recommended by the American Academy of........

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