Improved clinical management of retinoblastoma through gene testing.

Our experience indicates that retinoblastoma gene testing has significant benefits to the affected individuals and their families in New Zealand. Moreover, DNA extracted from fresh tumour allows retinoblastoma germline status in most cases to be defined. Without rumour material, the germline status of potentially sporadic cases will remain undetermined since the absence of detectable RB1 coding region mutations does not exclude all possible mutations in the RB1 gene, which is too large for DNA analysis. A lack of conclusive results will mean that infants will be subjected to the unnecessary inconvenience of surveillance under general anaesthesia.