On June 15-18, 2021, in Almaty, on the basis of the Scientific Center of Pediatrics and Children’s Surgery of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, a master class is being held with the participation of foreign specialists from Russia on the topic: "Selective intra-arterial chemotherapy of retinoblastoma", dedicated to the organ-preserving treatment of malignant intraocular neoplasm - retinoblastoma.

Retinoblastoma accounts for 90% of intraocular neoplasms in children and is characterized by high malignancy, aggressive course with filling the entire eyeball with tumor tissue, invading the optic nerve, orbit, and brain. The tumor poses a threat not only in the form of loss of vision, but also in the form of high mortality due to metastasis and the development of second malignant neoplasms in other organs. In about a third of patients, retinoblastoma is hereditary. The first and most common symptom of retinoblastoma is leukocoria - a white glow under certain lighting conditions (such as bright light from a camera flash). When the tumor begins to grow into other parts of the eye, the child begins to lose sight, sometimes to the point of complete blindness. The visual acuity of both eyes becomes different and therefore strabismus may appear in children (occurs in about 25 to 30% of patients). Less commonly, it happens that a child's eye hurts, reddens or swells when intraocular pressure rises.

Every year, 8100 new cases of retinoblastoma are diagnosed in the world, of which 570-810 are neonatal cases.

In the Republic of Kazakhstan, 20-25 new cases of retinoblastoma are detected per year. Since 2015, all patients with retinoblastoma have been treated at the Scientific Center for Pediatrics and Children’s Surgery. Program chemotherapy for this tumor was started. Together with the Kazakh Research Institute of Eye Diseases, the Center introduced such organ-preserving methods of treatment as laser transpupillary thermotherapy, intravitreal chemotherapy, and cryodestruction.

Selective intra-arterial chemotherapy for 15 years of use in the USA and European countries and 10 years of use in Russia has shown high efficiency, allowing you to save not only the eye itself as an organ, but even vision. In the United States, over the years of use, the number of operations to remove the eyeball has decreased from 95% to 8%.

As part of the master class, it is planned to carry out an operation of selective intra-arterial chemotherapy (SIAHT) for 7 children with retinoblastoma. For the operation from the National Medical Research Center of Oncology. N.N. Blokhin, the roentgenvascular surgeon Igor Trofimov and his colleague anesthesiologist Leonid Martynov were invited.

Parents of children with retinoblastoma, trying to save their eyes, previously went abroad for treatment at the expense of the Republican budget or their own funds. This is a rather expensive treatment. For example, treatment in Russia is 500,000 Russian rubles, in Switzerland - 60,000-70,000 US dollars.

Conducting this master class with the participation of foreign specialists from the N.N. NN Blokhin will allow for the first time not only in Kazakhstan, but also in Central Asia to introduce a new technology - selective intra-arterial chemotherapy. At present, the approval of the technology by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the approval of the medical and economic tariff are expected, which will allow the implementation of this operation on the basis of our center and the conduct of high-tech organ-preserving treatment in the homeland.