Boubekeur et al. (2012) conducted a constitutionnal and tumoral RB1 analysis in a group of 21 Algerian patients. In two of the patients, Boubekeur et al. (2012) identified mutations in germinal level demonstrating a transmissible form of retinoblastoma.

Shawky et al. (2000) designed a study to detect and define molecular mutations in a sample of 15 Egyptian children (eight males, seven females) with retinoblastoma. A thorough clinical examination and ophthalmologic assessment was followed by extensive PCR multiplexing and two-dimensional PAGE analysis. In 11 of the cases, the mutation could be identified in one of the seven exons screened. Shawky et al. (2000) concluded that such a delineation of mutations would be very helpful in screening programs for families with high risk of retinoblastoma. In an extension to this study, Shawky et al. (2002) correlated the mutations in these 15 patients with the clinical and inheritance patterns of the disease. Bilaterality of the tumor was observed in 60% of the cases, and unilaterality in the remaining 40%. The 30 parents of these patients were also studied. In 60% of the cases, there was neither positive family history for the disease nor any ophthalmologic evidence of a regressed tumor in the parents, indicating the sporadic nature of inheritance of the disease. However, in 27% of the cases, a positive history of the disease was noted in late siblings, along with an absence of any regressed tumors in the parents, indicating the autosomal recessive nature of inheritance. The remaining 13% cases evidenced autosomal dominant mode of inheritance, by the detection of old, regressed retinoblastomas in the eyes of at least one of the parents. Parental consanguinity was noticed in 53% of the cases; half of them being in sporadic and the rest half in autosomal recessively inherited cases. Genotype-phenotype correlation studies showed that early onset accompanied by rapid progressive course of the disease was seen in patients with mutations in exon 13, whereas later age of onset and a slower course of progression was characteristic of patients with mutations in exon 17. Patients with mutations in exon 2 showed severe rapidly progressive fatal course with multiple tumor foci of both eyes. These results were thought by Shawky et al. (2002) to reflect the importance of the mutated exon in the overall function of the gene product.

[Shawky RM, Salem MSZ, Rifaat MM, Ali MA, Zico OAO, Alazeem AA. Molecular mutations of retinoblastoma gene among Egyptian children. Egyptian J Med Hum Genet. 2000; 1(1):83-90.]

[Shawky RM, Salem MSZ, Rifaat MM, Alazeem AA. Retinoblastoma gene mutations among Egyptian patients. Egyptian J Med Hum Genet. 2002; 3(1):101-11.]

Dudin et al. (1984) described a case of hereditary bilateral retioblastoma with 13q mosaicism in periperal lymphocytes. The proband presented with bilateral retinoblastoma, while his father had unilateral retinoblastoma. Karyotype analysis of the father's lymphocytes and the son's skin fibroblasts were normal. However, the son's peripheral lymohocytes showed interstitial deletion on 13q1. 

Traboulsi et al. (1986) reviewed the cases of Retinoblastoma seen over a period of 35 years in Lebanon. Of the 58 cases reviewed, 33% were hereditary cases. About 74% of the hereditary cases had bilateral tumors. 

Khandekar et al. (2004) conducted an epidemiological study to estimate the magnitude and determinants of retinoblastoma. All Omani children below 15 years who were diagnosed with retinoblastoma according to ICD 10 (C 69.2) and morphological codes (M-9510) between the year 1990 and 2001 were included in this study. Their data, which was collected from the Oman National Cancer Registry and by a questionnaire, was analyzed by univariate and non-parametric statistical methods. Out of 29 patients (12 males and 17 females), 22 were less than five years old and seven were between five and nine years. Their geographical distribution was as follows: seven from North and seven from South Batinah, six from Muscat, six from North and one from South Sharqiya, one from Dhahira, and three from Dhofar. The incidence of retinoblastoma (mean age at diagnosis was 32.2 months) which was calculated from the cumulative population of children below 15 years was found to be 4.04/million population/year in children below 15 years, and 8.33/million population/year in children below five years. According to the mid-1996 birth cohort of 45,000, the incidence was 4.88/million live birth. Unilateral retinoblastoma was diagnosed in 75% of the patients with a mean age at diagnosis of 32.9 months. A quarter of the patients were diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma, with a mean age of 10 months, reflecting the younger age of diagnosis of bilateral retinoblastoma. None of the patients had a positive family history. Four patients (three with bilateral and one with unilateral retinoblastoma) died within five years of diagnosis. The five year survival rate was at par with that reported in the West (86.2%). The mean survival period of children with retinoblastoma was found to be 5.4 years.

Al-Idrissi et al. (1992) designed a project to determine the cumulative incidence of retinoblastoma in the city of Riyadh. This was done by retrospectively reviewing the medical records of RB cases presenting from 1982-86 in all the hospitals in the city. A total of 140 such cases were recorded in this time period. However, only 22 of these 140 were born in Riyadh, and were thus included in the study. In this period, the total number of births in the city was calculated at 254,780, giving a cumulative RB incidence of 1:11,580 live births (or 86 per million) for the city of Riyadh. This incidence is almost double the published rate for other areas of the world. Of these 22 cases, 16 were Saudis nationals. In addition, 16 of these patients were females. Al-Idrissi et al. (1992) suggested that this female preponderance could be due to chance or due to an unknown factor on the X-chromosome regulating the condition. In five of the cases, a positive family history of the condition was noted. Also, 11 of the patients were products of consanguineous unions. Of these, 20% had first-cousin parents, while another 48% had second-cousin parents.

Malik and El Sheikh (1979) studied 854 lesions involving the eye and adnexa in the Sudan. Of 279 primary malignant tumors (frequency ratio 4.3%), conjunctival squamous carcinoma was the commonest (50.4%) while retinoblastoma formed 20.8%, basal cell carcinoma 6.1% and malignant melanoma 4.6%. Retinoblastoma and melanoma showed certain tribal predilections.

Ahmad et al. (1999) conducted a mutation analysis of the RB1 gene in a Syrian family showing incomplete penetrance of retinoblastoma. They identified the missense point mutation in exon 21 of the RB1 gene converting a Cys>Arg (codon 712) in one family with a low penetrant phenotype. The proband was unilaterally affected, whereas the paternal uncle was bilaterally affected and the mutation carrier father was unaffected.