SAN FRANCISCO February 12, 2013 New findings from a landmark clinical trial show that although certain gene variants may predict whether a person is likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a potentially blinding eye disease that afflicts more than nine million Americans, these genes do not predict how patients will respond to Lucentis and Avastin, the two medications most widely used to treat the "wet" form of AMD. This new data from the Comparison of AMD Treatment Trials (CATT), published online in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, found no significant association between four gene variants and outcomes that measured the patients' responses to treatment.
The CATT genetics research team wanted to learn whether the major AMD risk genes could be useful in tailoring treatment with Avastin and Lucentis to individual patients' needs to boost treatment effectiveness and safety for patients. The main CATT study had confirmed that both medications significantly reduce or even reverse vision loss in many patients with wet AMD, but that study also found that treatment effectiveness varied among patients. The CATT genetics study, led by Stephanie Hagstrom, Ph.D., at the Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, clearly showed that the major AMD risk alleles do not predict patients' response to treatment.
This genetics study cohort comprised 73 percent of the 1,149 CATT participants. Cohort patients were evaluated for four gene variants linked to AMD risk: CFH, ARMS2, HTRA1, and C3. The patients' genotypes were then compared to their responses to treatment with Lucentis or Avastin. Both medications are anti-vascular epithelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapies that work in similar ways to reduce or prevent abnormal blood vessel growth and leakage. The researchers found no significant associations among the four gene variants and the outcomes that measured the patients' responses to treatm
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| Contact: Mary Wade mwade@aao.org 415-447-0221 American Academy of Ophthalmology Source:Eurekalert |
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