Treatment could stop blindness

A team from Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s University Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Manchester have been given the green light to test Avastin on more than 300 patients with “wet” age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This condition is responsible for 50% of all cases of blindness in the UK.

Patients will have regular injections into the eye of Avastin over the two years of the study. Early research with small numbers of volunteers suggests that Avastin is at least as effective as a similar, but more expensive treatment designed to treat wet AMD called Lucentis.

Researchers hope that if the treatment proves successful with larger numbers of patients, eye specialists will be given the go-ahead to prescribe Avastin routinely for patients with AMD on the NHS.