Genotyping lacks support for guiding antioxidant treatment of AMD
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Three separate statistical teams analyzed data from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study and found no evidence that genotyping can guide chemoprevention of age-related macular degeneration.
The three teams analyzed AREDS participants with AMD worse than category 1 and who had genotyping data. One team focused on data concordance between conflicting studies, a second focused on repeating claims of interactions between genotype and treatment, and a third attempted to find baseline predictors of treatment response.
Genotype data were analyzed for three single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) locations culled from 1,523 participants in two previous AREDS analyses, one by Awh and colleagues and one by Chew and colleagues. The largest data set examined included 879 participants for whom CFH and ARMS2 SNP data were available from both previous studies.
“Our separate statistical groups analyzed data from the AREDS study using three separate but complementary statistical approaches. We found no evidence to support the use of genotyping to inform chemoprevention of AMD,” the researchers wrote. Patients who meet criteria for supplementation and have no contraindications should be offered zinc and antioxidants without consideration of genotype, they said.
The researchers did find that progression-free survival was significantly better in treated patients with higher baseline risk (P = .032). – by Robert Linnehan
References:
Awh CC, et al. Ophthalmology. 2013;doi:org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2013.07.039.
Chew EY, et al. Ophthalmology. 2014;doi:org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2014.05.008.
Disclosures: Assel reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.