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Wet AMD patients respond well to anti-VEGF injections at 6- and 12-week intervals
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Patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration in China had improved visual acuity and decreased macular thickness after intravitreal injections of bevacizumab every 6 or 12 weeks, following three initial injections at 6-week intervals, a study found.
The subjects who received Avastin (bevacizumab, Genentech) injections every 6 weeks tended to have slightly better results than those who received injections every 12 weeks, but the difference was not statistically significant.
It is appealing to have less frequent injections in China because of the cost of treatment and travel needed for frequent injections, the study authors noted.
The multicenter, randomized, prospective, open-label clinical trial examined 185 patients with active neovascular AMD who did not have a macular scar, choroidal neovascularization not resulting from AMD and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. Ninety-one subjects were assigned to a 6-week regimen and 94 subjects were assigned to a 12-week regimen after an initial three injections at 6-week intervals.
At 48 weeks, the 6-week group had a mean visual acuity increase from baseline of 12.58 letters, while the 12-week group had an increase of 10.06 letters. Median decrease in central retinal thickness from baseline at 48 weeks was 119 µm in the 6-week group and 60 µm in the 12-week group.
Anterior chamber inflammation occurred in 17 patients in the 6-week group at 48 weeks vs. nine patients in the 12-week group.
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