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AMD radiation therapy safe and effective, may reduce injections
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WAIKOLOA, Hawaii — Data presented here at Hawaiian Eye 2008 showed continued safety and efficacy of epiretinal brachytherapy at 2 years. In the discussion that followed, physicians expressed their hope that a combination therapy with this technology could reduce intravitreal injections.
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"Why do we need to revisit radiation as a potential treatment for age-related macular degeneration?" Michael S. Ip, MD, asked.
The radiation technology, produced by Neovista, uses Strontium90 in a minimally invasive core pars plana vitrectomy to target the lesion, he said.
In the study of 18 patients followed for 24 months, Dr. Ip showed that 89% of patients lost fewer than 15 letters, 50% gained more than zero letters and 17% gained 15 or more letters. He showed there was no evidence of radiation toxicity at 2 years.
Dr. Ip also reviewed the 1-year results of a study examining radiation therapy in combination with Avastin (bevacizumab, Genentech); these results were previously reported at the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
"This treatment modality may reduce the number of anti-VEGF treatments that we do, permanently disabling the proliferating CNV cells," Dr. Ip said.
He said 85% of subjects received no additional injections after their initial injections. Visual acuity results showed 96% of patients lost fewer than 15 letters and 78% gained letters.
Elias Reichel, MD, said, "There clearly does seem to be an alteration here where we can reduce the number of treatments."