According to a study authored by Dr. Paul Finger, injections of a widely-used cancer drug curbs vision loss due to radiation treatment of eye cancer.
“This is a major breakthrough for eye cancer patients who are treated with radiation therapy and commonly develop radiation retinopathy. Avastin reduces abnormal blood vessel growth, stops leakage in the eye and the patients wind up seeing better. This is a first.”
According to a Reuters report, Finger and co-author Dr. Kimberly Chin found that eye injections of Avastin in patients undergoing radiation retinopathy led to improvement in vision within three months:
“The drug improved or stabilized vision in all patients by reducing abnormal blood vessel growth, leakage in the eye and swelling – the major causes of irreversible loss of vision in patients with radiation retinopathy, they note.”
“Before these Avastin findings, there was no effective treatment for macular radiation retinopathy,” Dr. Finger said.
