Heya Pete,

My eye doc told me steroids can cause cataracts, too.  He sees some developing in my eyes.  both of my parents had them and neither had chemo.  So who knows what might be producing mine?  The only thing I know is it couldn't be TBI as I didn't have it.

Hope all goes well with your surgery.

Blessings

I don't know if they can be caused by chemo, but like Tex said I have been told that they can be caused by steriods.

Busulphan, steroids and radiation (TBI, radiation to eyes and cranial radiation) are known to cause cataracts.  My son's dr informed us  of the risk and eye examinations are part of his long term followup.  They are more common with radiation but at our last visit to the oncologist (Sept 08) the Dr told me that a recent study had shown  a higher incidence of cataracts in children treated with busulphan than previously thought.

By the same token, one can have all sorts of chemo, full body irradiation, corticosteriod and prednisone use ... (like me) and five years later NOT have cataracts as everyone predicted. Go figure. In any instance, I have survivor friends who did develop them and getting them removed while not pleasant is a pretty non invasive affair (hey, if you can survive blood cancer and treatment) what's a little scraping off the eyeballs?!

I started using prednisone earlier this year and then I found out that I have the beginning of a cataract in my left eye.  Smoking gun? I do not know.  I’m also worried about the decreases in my bone mass caused by calcium loss when I use prednisone.  I was already borderline osteoporotic.  I take alendronate once a week to counteract the bone loss.  Joe

Welcome, Pete.  I'm glad the surgery helped.

I think cataracts are something that most of us will face at some point in our lives.  The idea seems to put them off as long as possible.

Blessings