Photobiomodulation for early dry AMD gets enthusiastic reception

Key Takeaways

• A light therapy improved vision in people with early-intermediate geographic atrophy in a study.
• A phase IIIb trial of the the thearpy has already begun and will have findings through 13 months of follow-up.

A form of low-level light therapy to stimulate cellular energy production achieved durable improvement in visual acuity in early-intermediate geographic atrophy (GA), a late stage of dry AMD in which cells in regions of the retina waste away and die (atrophy), according to a study presented by Eleonora Lad, MD, PhD, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, at the 2024 American Society of Retina Specialists annual meeting. Patients randomized to the light therapy, called photobiomodulation (PBM), had a five- to six-letter improvement in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), the best vision an eye can achieve with corrective lenses, at 12 and 24 months. In contrast, most patients in the control group had a decrease in BCVA, and twice as many had developed GA at 2 years.

“What I like is that 18.7% of the photobiomodulation eyes responded with more than a 10-letter gain, with a mean of 13.4,” said Lad. “More patients lost BCVA in the sham group compared with photobiomodulation at both timepoints. The study accomplished a favorable safety profile. There were no signs of phototoxicity or deterioration.”

A phase IIIb trial of PBM has already begun and will have findings through 13 months of follow-up, she added. The technology currently is CE marked in Europe and approved in South America.

Edited by Miriam Kaplan, PhD

Source:

Charles Bankhead, MedPage Today, July 23, 2024; see source article