Avastin Macular Degeneration
Avastin and Macular DegenerationIf you have been diagnosed with wet macular degeneration you probably are interested in what is called the off-label use of Avastin.
Macular degeneration treatment includes the use of anti-angiogenic drugs such as
Lucentis.
Avastin® (bevacizumab) is the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved therapy designed to inhibit angiogenesis, the process by which new blood vessels develop and carry vital nutrients to a tumor. So you may ask, how can a drug used to treat tumors be of benefit to a person with wet macular degeneration? Anti-Vegf Therapy
As you probably already know, in
wet macular degeneration
abnormal blood vessels form behind the retina and start to grow in the
macula
. These blood vessels leak blood and fluid causing damage to the macula and loss of vision.
Avastin is in a class of drugs called anti-VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) . These types of drugs reduce the growth of abnormal blood vessels - in tumors and in wet macular degeneration . The FDA approved Avastin in February 2004 for use in combination with another chemotherapy drug as a first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer. When a drug is used for a condition that the FDA has not approved it for, it becomes what is called "off-label" use. To read more about Anti-VEGF click here:
Anti-VEGF
Avastin Research Study Showed Eye Improvement
A study conducted by Dr. Philip J Rosenfeld, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, showed the eye treated with Avastin™ (bevacizumab) improved significantly. While there are a few other treatments for wet macular degeneration, eyes treated with Avastin™ (bevacizumab) were reported to improve vision in as little as one week according to Dr. Rosenfeld. Retinal specialists use a very small amount of Avastin™ (bevacizumab). Typically, the retinal specialist will ask a compounding pharmacy specializing in sterile (aseptic) compounding to transfer the Avastin™ (bevacizumab) from the manufacturer's vial into prefilled syringes containing a single dose. This injection is then administered by the retinal specialist, usually in an office setting.
Study Comparing Avastin to Lucentis
Currently Emory Eye Center in Atlanta, along with 47 other eye institutions, are involved in macular degeneration research comparing Lucentis and Avastin in the treatment of wet macular degneration. If you would like more information regarding this Avastin macular degeneration clinical trial please click on this link:
Comparison of ARMD Treatment: Lucentis-Avastin Trial
Published Studies: Rosenfeld PJ, Moshfeghi AA, Puliafito CA. Optical coherence tomography findings after an intravitreal injection of bevacizumab (avastin) for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging. 2005 Jul-Aug;36(4):331-5. Michels S, Rosenfeld PJ, Puliafito CA, Marcus EN, Venkatraman AS. Systemic bevacizumab (Avastin) therapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration twelve-week results of an uncontrolled open-label clinical study. Ophthalmology. 2005 Jun;112(6):1035-47.
Avastin vs Lucentis Study UpdateHere is an early report of a study comparing the treatment of 20 patients with macular degeneration.Thirteen (13) patients were given bevacizumab (Avastin) and 7 were given ranibizumab (Lucentis) every month for the first 3 months, followed by optical coherence tomography-guided, variable-dosing schedule. The average preoperative Visual Acuity was 31.6 letters in the bevacizumab (Avastin) group and 30.4 letters in the ranibizumab (Lucentis) group. At 6 months follow-up, mean vision was 46.4 letters in the bevacizumab (Avastin) group and 37.4 letters in the ranibizumab (Lucentis) group. CONCLUSION: "Early results of a head-to-head, randomized, double-masked, prospective, single-center controlled trial between bevacizumab (Avastin) and ranibizumab (Lucentis) show no difference in efficacy between the two treatments for choroidal neovascularizaton in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration. As this study conveys results of a small number of patients, further studies with larger sample sizes are needed in order to establish statistical significance."
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