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A VERY

GRATEFUL

PATIENT
G ary Sullivan understands the importance of taking care of
one’s eyes. Three decades ago, he was successfully treated for BASCOM PALMER EYE INSTITUTE NAPLES
cataracts and glaucoma, allowing him to continue his career as
a business professor in Texas and enjoy his retirement years in Naples felt there was minimal risk to Gary’s vision, so we decided to go
and New Mexico with his wife Linda. ahead. If the medication didn’t work, we could treat the tumor
with a laser later on.”
So, when Sullivan began losing vision in his left eye, he knew
something was wrong. Initially, his optometrist in Texas couldn’t see a Fortunately, the experimental treatment worked, and Sullivan’s
problem. But when Sullivan returned a year later for his next check-up, vision quickly began improving after each of his monthly
the news wasn’t good. “There was a benign tumor at the head of my injections. “After my first injection, I went out on the golf course
optic nerve near the macula,” he said. “While it wasn’t cancerous, the and shot a hole-in-one,” Sullivan said.“My vision has improved to
tumor could not be removed surgically because of its position.” nearly 20-20 and I can read again without a magnifier.”

Although his eye doctor said nothing could be done to prevent a While Sullivan’s tumor is still there, the most recent OCT
steady loss of vision from the tumor’s leakage of exudates, small, hard scans show that it’s not growing. “At this point, I can live with
clumps of cells seeping into the retina, Sullivan refused to give up. the tumor,” he said. “To be able to see clearly again – to me that
After returning from their summer home in New Mexico in 2015, the is borderline miraculous. I can’t say enough good things about the
Sullivans came to Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at Naples. excellent care I received from Dr. Villegas and the entire team at
Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at Naples.”
Using the Institute’s advanced optical coherence tomography
(OCT) imaging system, Stephen G. Schwartz, M.D., associate
professor of ophthalmology and medical director, quickly identified
Sullivan’s problem and referred him to Víctor M. Villegas M.D., an
assistant professor of clinical ophthalmology who specializes in retinal
tumors.

“Gary’s vision loss was being caused by the leakage from the blood
vessels in the tumor,” Villegas said. “The traditional treatment for this
type of lesion is to use a laser. But because the tumor was at the head of
the optic nerve, there was a higher risk of damage.”

Instead, Villegas and Sullivan discussed treating the vision loss with
Avastin, a medication originally developed as an anti-cancer drug that
is also effective in treating age-related macular degeneration (AMD)
– a discovery made in the early 2000s by Bascom Palmer’s Philip
Rosenfeld, M.D., Ph.D., professor of ophthalmology.

“I had used Avastin in my training, and saw that it was effective in
treating multiple small benign tumors in the eye,” Villegas said. “We

50 Life in Naples | November 2016