What's New with ROP?
Avastin the new drug
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Avastin shows promise against ROP in two small studies KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — Pan-vascular endothelial growth factor blockade, achieved using bevacizumab, appears to be effective for treating infants with retinopathy of prematurity, according to two specialists speaking here. Hugo Quiroz-Mercado, MD, of Mexico, and Susana Teixeira, MD, of Portugal, shared their positive experiences using Avastin (bevacizumab, Genentech) to treat ROP at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute's Angiogenesis 2007 meeting. Dr. Teixeira treated six eyes of five infants with aggressive ROP using the drug, which successfully cleared hemorrhages with no apparent systemic or local complications. All injected eyes showed regression of tunica vasculosa lentis, iris vessel engorgement, disappearance of iris rigidity and regression of retinal proliferation within 24 hours of injection, according to the study. Only one infant experienced a disease recurrence, Dr. Teixeira said. "If we target this VEGF [vascular endothelial growth factor] in the acute phase of ROP, maybe we can avoid the potentially blinding stages," she said. "Potential systemic effects of the drug are the downside of this strategy, but balancing the pros and cons, we decided to treat with off-label intravitreal bevacizumab [in] babies' eyes with acute ROP as a rescue treatment," Dr. Teixeira said. Dr. Mercado presented results from his own prospective study, which involved 18 eyes of 13 infants. He and colleagues found that Avastin induced neovascular regression in 17 eyes with no serious ocular or systemic adverse events, he said. "These patients are doing very well systemically, but we know we need more work on this" Dr. Mercado said. "We have seen so far that this is a safe procedure and the side effects should be studied more often." |
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