Blindness caused by photoreceptor degeneration as a remote effect of cancer.

Three postmenopausal women developed photoreceptor degeneration one to four months preceding or following discovery of an anaplastic tumor. Two patients had transitory visual obscurations and bizarre visual sensations. Ring scotomas progressed to severe visual field loss. Retinal arteries were markedly narrowed. Electroretinograms revealed almost total absence of response in one patient, and another complained of the recent onset of night blindness. In all three patients severe degeneration of the photoreceptor cells associated with melanophagic activity was shown histologically. In two patients neuropathologic examination from the retinal bipolar cells to the occipital cortex revealed no significant alterations.