When a little girl was about 14 months old, her parents noticed a small, fleshy growth on her right upper eyelid. Over the following months, it slowly grew. The lump sat on the punctum, the tiny opening on the eyelid that drains tears.
When she was evaluated at 18 months, surgeons removed it completely. Lab analysis identified a conjunctival stromal tumor, known as COST, a rare growth first described in 2012. Pathologists and an ophthalmologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville report that she is only the third child known to have been diagnosed with the tumor and the youngest reported to date.
