moles on the eyes

My dad was digonoesd with malanoma skin canser this year so far he has had them all removed so they have'nt pentrated the organs yet but he went to the eye doctor yesterday and they told him he has 3 moles on his right eye and that they just needed to watch this. So my question to you is could this be more cancer or is this more likely to be cancer sence he has had it already or is this a common thing?

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

A choroidal nevus is probably what they are talking about.  They are extremely common and are sort of light a freckle of the choroid (the layer just under the retina.)  The vast majority of them are harmless but some may enlarge and show themselves as malignant melanomas in rare cases.  Treatment can be quite complicated.  These type of choroidal melanomas are generally separate from melanomas that people get on their skin, in other words the skin melanomas don't usually spread to the eye and eye melanomas don't usually spread to the skin.  They both can be dangerous however and can both spread to other organs so prompt diagnosis and treatment is essential.  Again most nevi or freckles of the choroid are benign and harmless but if large, growing or unusual then care should be take to make the proper diagnosis.

[misty401]

thank you so much for taking the time to adress my question