Effectiveness of Lucentis Injections

If you're suffering from wet age-related macular degeneration, you've probably heard of Lucentis, a treatment that works by stopping the growth and leakage of blood vessels in the eye. Patients treated with Lucentis have had varying degrees of success in stopping vision loss and regaining some of their vision.

Background

• Wet age-related macular degeneration is a disease of the eye that may cause someone to see dark spots in the center of his vision or straight lines turned wavy due to blood or fluid under the macula. Lucentis (ranibizumab) is a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor that works by stopping leakage in those blood vessels and inhibiting the growth of blood vessels in the eye. It is injected into the eye by an eye doctor, usually once a month.

Efficacy

• The efficacy of Lucentis depends on a number of factors and is different for every patient. The producers of Lucentis, Genentech USA, claim that in its study of 800 patients over two years, 90 percent of patients saw their vision stabilize, while 40 percent saw their vision improve. The drug is approved by the FDA for treating wet age-related macular degeneration.

  What does all that mean? Patients were asked to look at vision charts before and after treatment with Lucentis. Patients whose vision stabilized lost no more than 15 letters on the vision chart (or three lines). This means that "stabilization of vision" does allow for some vision loss (accountable to age, testing conditions, and other factors). Patients who saw their vision get better gained up to three lines on a vision chart.

  The goal of treatment for people with wet AMD is the stabilization of vision (i.e. trying to keep vision from getting worse). Some patients report stabilization of vision after only a few treatments are are able to discontinue treatment. For other patients, monthly injections of Lucentis can continue indefinitely to control wet AMD.

Other Options

• Lucentis is not the only option for treating wet AMD. One other option is through laser treatment to seal leaking vessels. Laser treatment is expensive, and not everyone is a good candidate. Further, it is not always permanent, and many patients may need second treatments.

  Another option is switching to a different injection. Macugen and Avastin are two other VEGF inhibitors that may or may not be more effective for you. If you feel like your condition is not improving, talk to your eye doctor about other options you may have in treating wet AMD.