Eye cancer is rare. In the United States, about 3,200 people are diagnosed with primary eye cancer each year, making it one of the least common cancer types. To put that in perspective, breast cancer affects roughly 300,000 Americans annually, meaning eye cancer is nearly 100 times less common. Despite its rarity, eye cancer encompasses several distinct types that affect different age groups and populations at very different rates.
Annual Cases and Deaths in the U.S.
The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2026, approximately 3,200 new primary eye cancers will be diagnosed in the United States, with about 1,720 cases in males and 1,480 in females. Primary eye cancer means the cancer originated in the eye or eye socket, rather than spreading there from another part of the body. The majority of these cases are melanomas that develop inside the eye.
About 530 people die from eye cancer each year in the U.S., split roughly evenly between men and women. That relatively low death toll reflects the fact that most eye cancers are caught while still localized, where survival rates are significantly better.
The Most Common Types by Age
The two main forms of eye cancer affect very different populations. In adults, uveal melanoma is the most common type, with about 1,700 diagnoses per year in the U.S. This cancer develops in the pigmented layer of the eye (the uvea, which includes the iris and the tissue behind it). Risk rises steadily with age, increasing notably up through age 55 before leveling off around 75.
In children, the primary eye cancer is retinoblastoma, which develops in the retina. It occurs in roughly 1 out of every 16,000 to 24,000 live births worldwide, and the average age at diagnosis is just 18 months. Nearly all cases occur in children under 5. While retinoblastoma is serious, outcomes in high-income countries are generally very good when it’s caught early.
Who Is Most at Risk
Race and ethnicity play a striking role in uveal melanoma risk. Non-Hispanic white individuals develop the disease at a rate of about 6 per million people per year. Hispanic individuals are diagnosed at a rate of roughly 1.7 per million, while Black and Asian individuals have rates below 0.4 per million. That translates to a nearly 19-fold higher risk for non-Hispanic white people compared to Black people. The connection is similar to skin melanoma: lighter eye color and skin pigmentation appear to increase vulnerability to the type of DNA damage that triggers these cancers.
Other factors that raise risk include having light-colored eyes (blue or green), a history of unusual moles on the skin, and occupations with significant UV exposure. Unlike skin melanoma, however, the link between sunlight and eye melanoma is less clearly established.
Survival Rates by Stage
How early eye cancer is detected makes a dramatic difference. Based on data from people diagnosed with eye melanoma between 2015 and 2021:
- Localized (cancer confined to the eye): 88% five-year survival rate
- Regional (spread to nearby tissue or lymph nodes): 65% five-year survival rate
- Distant (spread to other organs, most often the liver): 19% five-year survival rate
These are relative survival rates, meaning they compare people with eye cancer to people without it in the general population. The sharp drop at the distant stage underscores why routine eye exams matter. Many eye melanomas are discovered during dilated eye exams before they cause any symptoms at all.
Incidence Is Slowly Rising
Eye cancer appears to be getting slightly more common over time, though it remains rare in absolute terms. In the UK, eye cancer incidence has increased by about 29% since the early 1990s, with a 13% rise in just the last decade. Projections suggest the UK could see around 2,100 new cases per year by the late 2030s, a 45% increase over current levels. Aging populations likely account for much of this rise, since the most common form of eye cancer peaks in older adults. Improved detection through routine eye imaging may also be contributing to higher case counts.
Primary vs. Secondary Eye Cancer
The 3,200 annual U.S. cases refer only to cancers that start in the eye. Cancer that spreads to the eye from elsewhere in the body, called secondary or metastatic eye cancer, is actually more common than primary eye cancer in clinical practice. Breast cancer, lung cancer, and other solid tumors can metastasize to the structures inside the eye. These cases are counted and treated as their original cancer type rather than as eye cancer, which is why they don’t appear in eye cancer statistics. If you’ve been told cancer has spread to your eye, the prognosis and treatment plan depend on the original cancer, not on eye cancer data.