tumors between muscles

A friend of mine discovered he has a tumor behind his right eye, he says it bulges when he smiles and he can "see" it.  He is going to a specialist next week and his current Dr. said something about the tumor being between two muscles in the eye versus being outside the muscle.  Is this situation better or worse?  What kind of tumor is this and what kind of prognosis can he expect at 23 years old?

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

The most common tumor in this area is a benign cavernous hemangioma which has a good  prognosis.   Pray that is is a benign tumor like that and not one of the less common malignant tumors. An optic nerve glioma is also possible but it is an obvious tumor of the optic nerve and I have not heard that from you.

MJK MD