[Non-ocular, malignant secondary tumor following spontaneous healing of a retinoblastoma ("retinoma", "retinocytoma")].

In a 47-year-old patient, the father of a child with bilateral retinoblastoma, three retinomas or retinocytomas were observed in the right eye, which had never been treated, in the course of a routine checkup. The left eye had been enucleated at age three-and-a-half because of a tumor of unknown etiology. At age 55 the patient died of lung cancer. The autopsy revealed a metastasized small-cell bronchial carcinoma. Histopathological examination of the right eye showed, in the region where the tumors had been observed clinically, merely disorganized retinal tissue with proliferations of pigment epithelium in some areas, and well-differentiated retinoblastomas in others. Tumor regression and differentiation appear to be the mechanisms responsible for spontaneous healing of the retinoblastoma. This case also emphasizes the threat posed by non-ocular secondary tumors to carriers of retinoblastoma genes.