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TAP Study extension: PDT effective after 36 months
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BALTIMORE — Photodynamic therapy appears to continue to be effective at up to 3 years, according to an open-label extension of a controlled trial of PDT.
The vision of patients with predominantly classic choroidal neovascularization who were treated with Visudyne (verteporfin for injection, Novartis Ophthalmics) remained fairly stable from 2 years to 3 years, according to the newest report generated by the Treatment of Age-related Macular Degeneration with Photodynamic Therapy (TAP) Study.
The study authors said they identified no safety concerns that would preclude additional treatment with PDT beyond 2 years.
Of the 351 patients who completed 24 month follow-up in the TAP Study, 320 were included in this open-label extension of the study. For the 105 patients with predominantly classic lesions who completed the month 36 exam, an average of 1.3 treatments were given during the third year of treatment. Visual acuity changed little, from a mean of 1.9 lines lost at 24 months to 2 lines lost at month 36.
The full report is published in the October issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.