HOUSTON (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- It's a devastating cancer that leads children into a world of darkness. When kids survive retinoblastoma -- a cancer that develops in the retina – 97 percent live with a moderate to severe visual impairment. A new effort is focused on finding treatments that can save these kids and their eyesight.

Angela Van Beveren saw it in her daughter's eye when she was only a few weeks old -- a strange glow in her left eye.

"It just seemed like something was not right,” Angela told Ivanhoe.

It was retinoblastoma, tumors inside her daughter Leah's eye. Within a year, doctors had to remove her eye to stop the cancer.

"At which point, I completely lost it, thinking of my little girl with no eye,” Angela said.

Today, Leah is a happy six-year-old, with a prosthesis she calls her "hero eye."

Researchers are working on new treatments to kill the cancer before a child's eye has to be removed. The first -- suicide gene therapy. Doctors inject viral particles into the eye then follow it up with a powerful IV drug. The combination launches an all-out attack on tumor cells.

"The product is poisonous to the cell, and the cell eventually dies because of that,” Murali Chintagumpala, M.D., a pediatric oncologist at the Retinoblastoma Center of Houston, told Ivanhoe.

The second new therapy -- proton beam radiation, a more precise treatment that targets only the tumor.

"We will be able to spare the normal tissues around the eye from the effects of radiation therapy, thereby reducing long-term side effects including future cancers,” Dr. Chintagumpala said.

Leah's now celebrating five years cancer-free, a little girl who had to sacrifice a lot, but is now enjoying every moment of growing up.