The results of a comparative study
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine are the results of a 1-year comparative study by the Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network, which compared the effects on diabetic macular oedema of intravitreal therapies with aflibercept, bevacizumab and ranibizumab respectively.
The study involved 660 adult patients with diabetic macular oedema involving the central macular area, from 89 clinical centres. Patients were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: 224 to treatment with aflibercept 2.0 mg, 218 to treatment with bevacizumab 1.25 mg or ranibizumab 0.3 mg.
The administration protocol involved intravitreal dosing every 4 weeks.
The researchers evaluated changes in visual acuity at one year and concluded that all three drugs were effective in patients with central diabetic macular oedema. The relative effectiveness depended, however, on the patient's visual acuity at the start of the trial. In cases where the initial loss of visual acuity was limited, there was apparently no difference on average between the three drugs, while in cases of severe loss of visual acuity aflibercept was relatively the most effective, using the same treatment protocol.
For more details see the March issue of the New England Journal of Medicine
Dr. Carmelo Chines
Direttore responsabile
English 
Italian