PDT still a viable option for AMD treatment

WAILEA, Hawaii — Photodynamic therapy is a viable treatment for age-related macular degeneration, and it may have better patient acceptance than multiple intravitreal injections, according to one clinician speaking here.

“Patients are consumers. They don’t mind having a needle stuck in their eye, they just don’t like doing it every 6 weeks for a year,” said Nancy M. Holekamp, MD.

Dr. Holekamp, who spoke here at Retina 2006, held in conjunction with Hawaiian Eye 2006, said that patients have had good compliance with PDT because “some of them may not drive, and they don’t want to have to come back so many times for [intravitreal] treatments.”

Dr. Holekamp said there is “still a role for PDT, given that so much attention is being paid to the anti-VEGF drugs.” She said patients “may wish to have the fewest number of treatments to achieve good results, assuming that safety, cost and vision outcomes are similar.”

Dr. Holekamp described results of an unpublished study that was presented at the 2003 Macula Society meeting. The goal of the study was to identify patients whose vision improved by up to two lines with only one PDT treatment. The retrospective study included 587 eyes with AMD or pathologic myopia. Myopic eyes and AMD eyes with occult choroidal neovascularization were more likely to have a good outcome after a single PDT treatment, Dr. Holekamp said.