A recent research has shown connection between gene mutation and the most common eye cancer. Research team led by Catherine Van Raamsdonk, an assistant professor of medical genetics at the University of British Columbia has discovered a genetic mutation in a gene called GNAQ that could be responsible for up to 45 per cent cases of uveal melanoma.

Uveal melanoma is caused by unregulated growth of melanocytes which are also found in the skin and are cells linked to a life-threatening form of skin cancer. Researchers found that GNAQ regulates melanocyte survival.  
 
Van Raamsdonk said, "When the GNAQ gene is mutated it leads to unregulated growth of melanocytes. Since cancer is a disease of unregulated cell growth, our findings led us to the discovery that a genetic mutation of the GNAQ gene causes uveal melanoma."

Van Raamsdonk added, “The next step is to develop an effective treatment by targeting the specific biological processes that this mutated gene controls."