Systemic safety of bevacizumab versus ranibizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration

Lorenzo Moja, Ersilia Lucenteforte, Koren H Kwag, Vittorio Bertele, Annalisa Campomori, Usha Chakravarthy, Roberto D'Amico, Kay Dickersin, Laurent Kodjikian, Kristina Lindsley, Yoon Loke, Maureen Maguire, Daniel F Martin, Alessandro Mugelli, Bernd Mühlbauer, Isabel Püntmann, Barnaby Reeves, Chris Rogers, Christine Schmucker, Manju L SubramanianGianni Virgili

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

181 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of legal blindness in elderly populations of industrialised countries. Bevacizumab (Avastin®) and ranibizumab (Lucentis®) are targeted biological drugs (a monoclonal antibody) that inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor, an angiogenic cytokine that promotes vascular leakage and growth, thereby preventing its pathological angiogenesis. Ranibizumab is approved for intravitreal use to treat neovascular AMD, while bevacizumab is approved for intravenous use as a cancer therapy. However, due to the biological similarity of the two drugs, bevacizumab is widely used off-label to treat neovascular AMD.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberCD011230
JournalCochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
Volume9
Early online date15 Sep 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Cite this