Bevacizumab for choroidal neovascularization secondary to age-related macular degeneration and pathological myopia.

INTRODUCTION: Many retinal specialists have utilized intravitreal bevacizumab as an anti-VEGF to treat choroidal neovascularization (CNV), secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and pathological myopia, with favorable results. Bevacizumab is currently approved only for the systemic treatment of colon carcinoma, whereas it is widely used off-label for treating ocular neovascular diseases.

AREAS COVERED: In this review, after thorough search, 33 relevant studies conducted in the last 4 years were found. These articles comprised 14 studies about use of bevacizumab alone or in combination with other therapeutic agents to treat exudative AMD, and 19 studies on the use of myopic CNV.

EXPERT OPINION: Although bevacizumab is widely used as an anti-VEGF agent for the treatment of exudative AMD, data on its systemic side effects are limited because of studies' short follow-up periods, absence of appropriate controls, limitation in reporting outcomes, and lack of controlled clinical trials in Phase III. Some safety studies demonstrated no difference between bevacizumab and ranibizumab in occurrence of heart attacks or stroke. Conducting proper randomized clinical trials with long-term follow-up is crucial to make sure about efficacy and safety of bevacizumab.