What Is Mitomycin Eye Drops?

Mitomycin is an antibiotic used in eyedrop form to help treat certain types of eye cancer and other eye growths that impair vision. These eyedrops are a form of chemotherapy that helps to reduce the size of tumors or growths before surgical removal. They are also used in the healing process after surgery to help prevent the growths from returning.

History

• Mitomycin, also known as mitomycin-C and MMC, is a topical antibiotic that has been used by doctors since 1993 as eyedrop chemotherapy to increase the success rate of surgery to remove eye growths and tumors.

Uses

• Mitomycin is used to help shrink tumors or cancerous cells on the eye. It is also commonly used to treat pterygium, a disorder of the eye tissue that causes vision-impairing growths over the cornea. These drops are given both before and after surgery to help reduce these growths and prevent them from returning.

Effectiveness

• Several long-term studies have shown that patients treated for pterygium with the combination of mitomycin drops and surgery to remove the growths have a lower risk of the disorder's returning than patients treated with surgery alone.

Warning

• Mitomycin eyedrops should only be administered after doctor consultation to assess the effectiveness and risks of usage.