Patient Stories

For Cheryl, Knowing Her Tumor Type was a “Blessing”

For Cheryl G., 51, the journey to Dr. J. William Harbour’s office in April 2011 had been a long one. In fact, it started a few months earlier when her vision slowly began fading. Contacts and reading glasses could not counteract the spots, dots, and floaters. Cheryl was in and out of doctors’ offices, first told she had an infection and eventually diagnosed with cataracts. “I was so happy because cataracts are treatable.” Wife, mother ... Read More

Taking Matters Into Her Own Hands

Mary sat in disbelief. How could that small dot in her eye, the one her doctor had called a “freckle” just twelve years ago, now be a malignant tumor? Uveal melanoma? Mary’s doctor said radiation was the best treatment option in her case. He explained he’d like to perform a test to assess the likelihood for metastasis—that is, that her tumor had already spread. It required a fine needle aspirate biopsy, a quick procedure in ... Read More

The Test of Time

It was just two days before the radiation treatment of his uveal melanoma, or eye cancer. Peter L. boarded a plane determined to have his tumor biopsied and tested by Dr. J. William Harbour, the ocular oncologist who developed a genomic test that could lay out his odds of survival. “For me, as a patient this counts big time…it sits in one’s mind all the time if you don’t know. And Peter almost didn’t know. ... Read More

A Second Chance for Jerry

He just knew he was going to die.  In September 2009, Jerry W, a retired GM employee, was diagnosed with uveal melanoma. His entire world collapsed. “It’s a scary, world-stopping thing when you’re told you have eye cancer, and you need to do aggressive treatment to have more time. Pretty awful.” With the support of his loving wife Cindy, Jerry, 73, knew he had to go ahead with radiation treatment of the tumor. But there ... Read More