Systemic safety of bevacizumab versus ranibizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration

Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of legal blindness in elderly populations of industrialised countries. Bevacizumab (Avastin®) and ranibizumab (Lucentis®) are targeted biological drugs (a monoclonal antibody) that inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor, an angiogenic cytokine that promotes vascular leakage and growth, thereby preventing its pathological angiogenesis. Ranibizumab is approved for intravitreal use to treat neovascular AMD, while bevacizumab is approved for intravenous use as a cancer therapy. However, due to the biological similarity of the two drugs, bevacizumab is widely used off-label to treat neovascular AMD.

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To assess the systemic safety of intravitreal bevacizumab compared with intravitreal ranibizumab in people with neovascular AMD.