Patients with macular degeneration are thought to have elevated levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in their affected eyes. VEGF is a protein that causes abnormal blood vessels to grow, leak, bleed, and damage the macula resulting in vision loss. Anti-VEGF drugs, like Lucentis (ranibizumab), work by blocking this protein and the formation of abnormal blood vessels that grow in the eye.
In a report published October 5, 2006 in the New England Journal of Medicine, a majority of patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) showed improvement in their vision after treatment with Lucentis. Philip J. Rosenfeld, M.D., Ph.D., professor of ophthalmology and retina specialist at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine was lead author of the study.
In this study, monthly intraocular injections with 0.5 mg Lucentis (ranibizumab) resulted in stable or improved visual acuity in 95% of patients after 1 year and in 90% of patients after 2 years. Improvement in visual acuity was evident 1 month after the first injection, the improvement continued through 3 months, and was sustained through 2 years.
“This was the first Phase III study for wet AMD to show visual improvement in the average patient after one year of treatment,” said Rosenfeld. “Ranibizumab appeared to be safe and did not appear to put patients at any additional risk for systemic adverse events. Moreover, the ocular adverse event rates were very well tolerated and similar to what we would expect among people in this age group who receive an injection in the eye.”
He was quick to clarify, however, that the treatment is not for all patients with wet AMD. There’s a window of opportunity when Lucentis can be effective: If the vision loss has been present for a year or longer, it is very unlikely Lucentis will have any benefit. “This is not a cure, but rather a treatment that allows us to convert wet AMD back to dry AMD and dramatically slow down the vision loss normally associated with this disease over a lifetime,” added Rosenfeld.