Human vision, visual correction, and visual science

Macular degeneration and thalidomide

Does anyone have any information on trials

making use of thalidomide for mac. deg.?

Thanks,

Marcia

Comments (3)




3 Responses to “Macular degeneration and thalidomide”

  1. admin says:

    In article <3qkc0a$…@ixnews4.ix.netcom.com> marc…@ix.netcom.com (Marcia Van Horn) writes:

    >Does anyone have any information on trials

    >making use of thalidomide for mac. deg.?

    >Thanks,

    >Marcia

    I have heard through my doctor at Mass Eye & Ear that the results with
    thalidomide were not too good.  From what I understand, thalidomide like
    Interferon, were used to stop the formation of new blood cells.  What are
    the side effects?  I wouldn’t take it.  

    For those with myopic degeneration or macular degeneration there is a
    new study going on at the Mass E&E.  Right now the FDA is conducting
    a study that Dr Joan Miller is leading. The treatment is with laser where
    a dye is injected in you and then a very low intensity laser treats the area of
    subfoveal neovascular membranes.  The laser is "attracted to" or "tuned" to
    this dye so it is not destroying good tissue like conventional laser.
    The therapy itself is called Photo Dynamic Therapy or PDT.

    I got turned down to be a part of this study because my crack wasn’t
    considered "subfoveal" even though all my doctors at Mass E&E thought
    I should have qualified for the treatment.  The results on the first 6 people
    look pretty good with one guy going from 20/250 to 20/65.  Dr Miller said
    she didn’t understand why he improved so well.

                    -Chris

    Chris Doherty
    (617)621-7396 work
    (617)933-2958 home

  2. admin says:

    i believe in vitro trials only; theoretical links only to macular
    degeneration benefit, but i could be wrong

  3. admin says:

    I know of at least one trial involving thalidomide with and
    without laser for (age-related) macular degeneration.  This one
    is in Philadelphia at the Scheie Eye Institute/University of
    Pennsylvania.  I don’t have their phone number in front of me but
    you can call information – the doctors involved are Drs. Fine,
    Ho, Brucker, McGuire (sp?), ? others.

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