MONTREAL -- Diabetic retinopathy severity and the risk of vision-threatening complications decreased significantly in patients treated with the investigational VEGF inhibitor tarcocimab, a randomized, sham-controlled study showed.
More than 60% of patients had at least a two-step improvement in the Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Scale (DRSS) at 48 weeks after five intravitreal injections of tarcocimab (two from weeks 24-48) as compared with 3.3% of patients randomized to sham injections. Sight-threatening complications -- diabetic macular edema (DME), proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), and anterior segment neovascularization -- occurred in 2.4% of the tarcocimab group versus 15.8% of the control group.
Central subfield thickness (CST) decreased in the tarcocimab arm but remained largely unchanged in the control arm, and visual acuity was preserved in both groups. No patients in the tarcocimab group developed endophthalmitis or intraocular inflammation, and more diabetic retinopathy-related adverse events occurred in the control group, reported Charles Wykoff, MD, PhD, of Retina Consultants of Texas in Houston, at the American Society of Retina Specialists meeting.
Results from the GLOW2 trial are consistent with those of the GLOW trial, which showed a two-step DRSS improvement in 41% of patients treated with tarcocimab and a 90% reduction in sight-threatening complications.
