Anti-VEGF Therapy: Past, Present, and Future

The introduction of anti-VEGF therapy has had a greater effect on the world of retina than any other advance in the past few decades.

 Long-Lasting Anti-VEGF Implants

Care for patients with retinal vascular diseases often includes monthly or bimonthly intravitreal injections. This schedule, combined with possible additional rescue injections and clinic visits for other ocular comorbidities, places a heavy burden on patients.

Anti-VEGF Injections: Start to Finish

Intravitreal injections of anti-VEGF are FDA-approved for a number of ocular conditions and have been shown to decrease macular edema and improve vision. The most common are aflibercept (Eylea), ranibizumab (Lucentis) and bevacizumab (Avastin).

Anti-VEGF Therapy & AMD

While all of these medications have excellent efficacy for the treatment of nAMD, the results of HAWK and HARRIER suggests increased durability of treatment with brolucizumab, with more than 50% of patients achieving 3-month dosing of brolucizumab in HAWK and HARRIER.

Anti-VEGF-Resistant Retinal Diseases: A Review of the Latest Treatment Options

Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy currently plays a central role in the treatment of numerous retinal diseases, most notably exudative age-related macular degeneration (eAMD), diabetic retinopathy and retinal vein occlusions. While offering significant functional and anatomic benefits in most patients, there exists a subset of 15–40% of eyes that fail to respond or only partially respond.

Current and Future Anti-VEGF Agents for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of legal blindness in developed countries. Neovascular (ie, wet) AMD is currently managed with intravitreal therapy. Traditional treatments (ie, bevacizumab, ranibizumab, aflibercept) provide high-efficacy therapy but can also require frequent dosing.

Emerging Evidence Concerning Systemic Safety of Anti-VEGF Agents – Should Ophthalmologists Be Concerned?

Intraocular injections of anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents have yielded dramatic improvements in the management of a wide variety of neovascular ocular diseases including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), retinal vein occlusion, and now even retinopathy of prematurity. These agents have thus become one of the most commonly employed treatments,..

How Do Anti-VEGF Injections Work?

All anti-VEGF medications work to bind the VEGF with protein molecules called aptamers. Aptamers prevent the VEGF from encouraging production of any new abnormal blood vessels.

Saving memories: Do anti-VEGF agents contribute to cognitive loss?

Perhaps you have some alternative hypotheses of your own. Whatever the truth is, I think it is worth examining in greater detail whether anti-VEGF agents might play a role in cognitive loss.