Background: retinoblastoma is an intraocular malignancy of the childhood. Tumor invasion and metastases are the cause of mortality. The objective was to determine the clinical characteristics, the appearance and site of metastases in patients with retinoblastoma.
Methods: descriptive, observational, retrospective and cross-sectional study was carried out. We reviewed 86 patients with retinoblastoma.
Results: the average age was 24.5 months. There were 51.2 % women. 75.6 % had unilateral presentation and 24.4 % bilateral; two of these were trilateral The clinical manifestation were leukokoria, strabismus and glaucoma. We found metastatic disease in 18 patients (20 %), being the central nervous system (CNS) and bones frequently affected. The metastases odds ratio was 3.50 associated to choroidal invasion; 6.25 for patients with invasion to optical nerve with edge with tumor; 3.75 for which they had choroidal invasion and optic nerve with free edge and 5.62 for patients with choroidal invasion and optic nerve with surgical edge with tumor.
Conclusions: choroidal invasion and surgical edge with tumor showed a greater relative risk for development of metastatic disease. The sites commonly affected were the CNS and bones.