Interesting Sessions to Come at ASRS 2019

This weekend, MD Magazine® is on the road. The American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) 2019 Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, will highlight developing and currently-applied practices designed to better the field of retina care.

Here’s a quick list of sessions of note that MD Mag will be covering, as well as some context as to what has led up to each presentation.

Treatment of Moderately Severe to Severe Nonproliferative Diabetic Retinopathy With Intravitreal Aflibercept Injection: 52-Week Results From PANORAMA, W. Lloyd Clark, MD

At the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2019 Annual Meeting, PANORAMA investigator Charles Wykoff, MD, PhD, of the Retina Consultants of Houston, discussed the 52-week primary endpoint findings of the study, in which 65% and 80% of patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) administered aflibercept injection every 16 weeks and every 8 weeks, respectively, improved at least 2 steps on the diabetic retinopathy severity scale.

Just 15% of placebo-treated patients with NPDR reached that benchmark. Wykoff called the findings “highly statistically significant differences” between treatment arms.

“I think the most valuable thing that this trial does is it gives us data to inform our discussions or management decisions with patients,” he told MD Mag.

Open-Label Study Evaluating the Effects of the CCR3 Antagonist ALK4290 in Patients With Neovascular AMD Refractory to Anti-VEGF Therapy, Michael W. Stewart, MD

In the past year, Alkahest Inc announced the launch of a pair of single-arm, open label phase 2 trials designed to evaluate investigative therapy ALK4290 for patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The trials are evaluating the efficacy and safety of ALK4290 as a six-week oral treatment for newly diagnosed wAMD or refractory wAMD patients, based primarily in Hungary and Poland. Investigators hope the novel oral administration of AMD therapy will help advance standard-of-care drug delivery in a manner that improves on the troubled rate of patient adherence associated with intravitreal AMD therapies.

Treatment Patterns of Ranibizumab Over Time in Treatment-Naïve Patients With nAMD: Real World Outcomes From LUMINOUS

Monoclonal antibody ranibizumab (Lucentis) is currently approved for the treatment of patients with wAMD, and is now being assessed by Genentech for patients with the neovascular form of the chronic condition.

The largest study ever conducted in retinal disease, the five-year LUMINOUS study assessed real-world efficacy of the therapy in 30,000-plus patients with diabetic macular edema (DME), branch retinal vein occlusion, central retinal vein occlusion and myopic choroidal neovascularization.

Though this new assessment features a patient population naïve to prior therapy for their AMD, recent trials involving ranibizumab show its benefits among patients switching from anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) competitors including aflibercept (Eylea).

Port Delivery System With Ranibizumab (PDS): Key Outcomes From the Ladder Phase 2 Trial That Supported Archway Phase 3 Study Design in nAMD, Arshad M. Khanani, MD

At ASRS 2018 in Vancouver, BC, study author Carl C. Awh, MD, told MD Mag that lessened injection therapy among patients with nAMD is associated with patient adherence. That said, the LADDER trial author advised physicians consider the entire scope of AMD care—not just the preferences of the patient.

“That’s the key—outcomes and treatment burden, not just reducing treatment burden,” he added.

New data is expected to update the conversation around the surgically-implanted port delivery system, which was shown in Awh’s presentation last year to associate with a six-month treatment continuation among 71.3% of its 40 mg/mL ranibizumab patients.