Free Republic

A rare form of eye cancer has struck a group of people in two locations in North Carolina and Alabama, confounding medical experts who are trying to determine whether the cases are linked. Ocular melanoma typically affects 6 out of every 1 million people, but doctors have found dozens of cases where those affected have ties to either Huntersville, N.C., or Auburn, Ala. Many of those diagnosed attended Auburn University between 1983 and 2001 — at least three of them were friends. At least 38 people who went to Auburn have reported being diagnosed with the disease, according to a...

A WOMAN is pregnant with Britain’s first designer baby selected to prevent an inherited cancer, The Times can reveal. Her decision to use controversial genetic-screening technology will ensure that she does not pass on to her child the hereditary form of eye cancer from which she suffers. Although they did not have fertility problems, the woman and her partner created embryos by IVF. This allowed doctors to remove a cell and test it for the cancer gene, so only unaffected embryos were transferred to her womb. The couple are the first to take advantage of a relaxation in the rules...

Implant May Save Vision, Lives People with eye cancer face the prospect of losing their eyesight and even their lives. But a new procedure could keep them alive and their vision intact. Bill Grieb, a husband of 37 years and a grandfather of six, first noticed something wrong with his vision on the golf course. The avid golfer suddenly couldn't focus on the ball. "It looked like when someone would take a flash photo of you," said Grieb. "It was the bright flash in your eye. … And I thought it was the reflection of the sun off my glasses."...