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New Hope in the Treatment of Wet Macular Degeneration
TREATMENT OF WET MACULAR DEGENERATION WITH ANTI-VEGF MEDICATIONS
The compounds known as Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors, or VEGF’s, are found in high concentration inside the eyes of patients with wet macular degeneration, and have been proven to be one of the causes for the formation of abnormal blood vessels below the retina that cause bleeding and sudden loss of vision.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now approved two drugs for injection into the eye that block VEGF’s, one of which has even been shown to improve vision!
The two FDA-approved drugs are Macugen and Lucentis. While Macugen has been shown to stabilize vision in wet macular degeneration patients, some Lucentis patients actually experience visual improvement. Therefore, Macugen usage has become less common for the treatment of wet macular degeneration.
Doctors are now more optimistic than ever with respect to the treatment of wet macular degeneration. However, studies have shown that in most patients, the effect is temporary, and some patients may require monthly injections of Lucentis for continued effect.
Most interesting is that Genentech, the company that manufactures Lucentis, also manufactures a colon cancer anti-VEGF drug known as Avastin that might also prove useful in the treatment of wet macular degeneration. Dr. Philip Rosenfeld of the renowned Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, Florida was the first to use Avastin in the eyes of wet macular degeneration patients. Like Lucentis, he found vision improvement. And while Lucentis costs ,000 per injection, Avastin costs only .00.
Which of these two Genentech products works better?
No one knows. Many physicians are using the less expensive Avastin “off-label,” because it is not FDA approved. But the National Eye Institute feels that it warrants more investigation, and will fund a study to compare their relative safety and effectiveness of Lucentis and Avastin.
About the Author: ©2006, Vitamin Science Inc, www.visivite.com
Vitamin Science, manufacturers of VisiVite nutritional supplements for eye health, such as VisiVite i-Defense Gold Formula (http://www.visivite.com/premier-eye-vitamin.html) has garnered frequent accolades in their development of vitamin supplements for macular degeneration, dry eye syndrome and in their public education regarding issues affecting senior eye health.
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