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What is Lucentis?

Wet AMD

Wet AMD

Lucentis, which you can read about in the accompanying article, is a new treatment for "wet" age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD affects central vision in a way that might resemble the example shown here.

Lucentis (scientific name ranibizumab) is a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of "wet" or "neovascular" age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Wet AMD is the most aggressive form of this sight-threatening eye disease. It has the potential to cause rapid deterioration of vision, especially when left untreated. The cause of the vision loss is the growth of abnormal new blood vessels underneath parts of the retina where they do not belong. The biologic process by which these new, unwanted vessels form is called "angiogenesis."

Lucentis targets a key step in angiogenesis. It is injected into the back of the eye through the sclera (white part of the eye). When it reaches the retina, it binds with a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is a stimulator of new blood vessel growth. As a result, the VEGF is unable to stimulate angiogenesis, and the eye is protected from the damage it causes.

In the human clinical trials that led to its FDA approval in 2006, this new anti-VEGF drug produced better results than any other treatment previously used to treat wet AMD. Vision stabilized in 95% of patients treated with the drug. Also, in nearly 40% of patients, vision improved by 15 letters or more on the visual acuity chart. In one of the trials, on average, patients experienced a visual acuity improvement of 6.6 letters after two years of treatment. In another trial, on average, patients experienced a visual acuity improvement of 10.7 letters after two years of treatment. Overall, approximately 40 percent of patients achieved 20/40 or better visual acuity.

Is One Treatment All I Will Need?

If your eye doctor decides to use Lucentis as part of your macular degeneration treatment, you will most likely need to be treated several times. Each person responds to the treatment differently, so some people need to have more injections than others to keep the wet AMD under control. Injection is the current method of drug delivery because it is the most effective way known to directly target the retina without exposing the rest of the body to too much of the drug. However, scientists are now working to find other ways to administer the drug. They are also exploring whether combining Lucentis with other treatments for macular degeneration might improve results even further and decrease the number of injections patients need.

What are the Side Effects of Lucentis?

One of the reasons Lucentis is such a powerful treatment is that it blocks all of the various forms of VEGF, some of which have positive effects in the body. For this reason, it is called a "pan-VEGF" blocker. While the drug was very safe during clinical trials, and so far in general use, there is a theoretical possibility that a pan-VEGF blocker, even when delivered only to the eye, can cause serious side effects.

While these risks theoretically exist with the use of Lucentis, because some drug may leave the eye and enter the bloodstream, the risk is believed to be low. The rate of arterial thromboembolic side effects in the AMD clinical trials was less than 4%. Other, less serious side effects are more common in AMD patients. They are usually related to the injection itself, and not the drug. They are generally mild and temporary.

As you undergo treatment for wet AMD, your eye doctor will explain each of the different therapy options, pan-anti-VEGF and others, in detail. He or she will choose the treatment expected to be the safest and most effective for your individual case.

Hope for the future? New clinical trials.

NeoVista, Inc. is a company that is developing an intraocular epiretinal radiation device intended for the treatment of the wet form of age-related macular degeneration. If you, or someone you know, are interested in participating in the CABERNET Trial, please follow the link below:

Learn more about the CABERNET Trial

 

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