Predictors of anti-VEGF treatment response in agereated macular degeneration

Abstract

Background. Improvement in visual acuity (VA) and structural changes associated with antiVEGF (anti-vascular endothelial growth factor) treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) may be different from patient to patient. There are a lot of well-known factors that could influence the progression of the disease from the beginning, like VA and age before starting the treatment, structural characteristics on OCT, but in the same time other basic predictors are waiting to be discovered. Early identification of patients who will have an adequate response to treatment is important to reduce the percentage of treatment failure. Classification of patients into two groups, depending on their response to anti-VEGF treatment may help physician to the best approaching of disease from the beginning. At the same time, this research could be perfectly suited for a new group of long-acting drugs, such as brolucizumab, that predict a new period in the treatment of AMD. Conclusions. Determining the factors involved in the variability of treatment response could help in developing an algorithm for stratifying patients in order to obtain maximum therapeutic effect.