All Dean Wojcik wanted was his pilot's license. The state Environmental Conservation Police officer and retired Navy pilot had bought a six-seat aircraft that he planned to use for work, but first he needed to convert his military license to a commercial license, which required an eye exam.

So in February he went to an optometrist in Gales Ferry, expecting she might tell him he needed glasses.

"I knew I was going to be close on passing the exam," he said.

But when he got into the exam room with Dr. Jeanette Jezick, he knew that glasses would be the least of his worries.

"Her hands started shaking," Wojcik said. Jezick had seen a spot on his eye that she thought might be a sign of something serious. 

Wojcik went to an ophthalmologist for an official diagnosis: It was ocular melanoma, a rare form of skin cancer that forms on the surface of the eye.

"It was a small spot," he said. "But definitely enough to kill you if it goes unnoticed."

Ocular melanoma is rare: About six people in a million are diagnosed with the disease every year in the United States, about 2,500 new cases per year.

Carol Shields, the director of Ocular Oncology Service at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, estimated that most comprehensive ophthalmologists might see one patient with ocular melanoma every 10 years. Most see three cases in a 30-year career.

Wojcik went to the Wills Eye Hospital for treatment. Doctors there placed a radiation therapy device directly over the tumor on the outside wall of his eye, leaving it there for about a week before it was removed.

The procedure, plaque radiotherapy, can effectively treat 98 percent of ocular melanoma cases, Shields said.

The cancer often metastasizes to the liver before patients know it's in their eye.

"Melanoma can hide out in the eye without symptoms, (especially) when it is small," Shields said. "So most people do not go for eye examination if they have no symptoms. The way to fix this is to tell patients to see their eye doctor for routine annual examinations."

Now Wojcik, a self-described "classic guy's guy" who avoided doctor appointments when he could, now encourages people to add eye exams to their regular schedule along with colonoscopies or mammograms.

He plans to go back to work in August.

"It could have taken six months to spread," he said. "The point is, get in and get your eyes checked. Unless you went for an eye check, you'd never know."

Steven Thornquist, an ophthalmologist and the president of the Connecticut State Medical Society, said cases of ocular melanoma aren't reason enough for otherwise healthy people to rush out and get an eye exam, especially if they're under age 40.

But annual eye exams for those over 40, and every five years or so for younger people without vision problems, can't hurt.

"If you've never had an eye exam, it's not a bad idea to get one at some point," he said.

m.shanahan@theday.com