Impact of anti-VEGF treatment on development of proliferative diabetic retinopathy in routine clinical practice

Abstract

BackgroundThis study evaluated impact of anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment on proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) development among patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) in US real-world clinical practice.MethodsThis was a retrospective analysis of electronic medical records (Vestrum Health; January 2013 to June 2019) of eyes with baseline NPDR, without DME, and naïve to anti-VEGF treatment at index DR diagnosis. Eyes that received anti-VEGF and/or laser treatment over the course of study before development of PDR constituted the treated cohort while the remaining including those treated with laser constituted the anti-VEGF naïve cohort. Survival analysis via Kaplan–Meier method evaluated time to DME and PDR development by baseline NPDR severity, with anti-VEGF treatment as censoring variable. Baseline factors affecting PDR development were analyzed using Cox multivariable regression, censoring for anti-VEGF treatment.ResultsAmong anti-VEGF–naive eyes, cumulative incidence of DME in eyes with mild (n = 70,050), moderate (n = 39,116), and severe NPDR (n = 10,692) at baseline was 27.1%, 51.2%, and 60.6%. Multivariable regression analysis identified baseline NPDR severity as the most significant predictor of PDR development over 48 months (hazard ratio [HR] [95% confidence interval {CI}] of 2.69 (2.65–2.72) for moderate vs mild NPDR and 6.51 (6.47–6.55) for severe vs mild NPDR). Cumulative incidence (95% CI) of PDR was 7.9% (7.4%–8.3%), 20.9%, (20.0%–21.7%) and 46.8% (44.4%–49.2%) over 48 months in eyes with mild, moderate, and severe NPDR at baseline, respectively. Among treated eyes with baseline severe NPDR, cumulative incidence of PDR at 48 months was 50.1% in eyes treated with laser (n = 546; HR [95% CI] vs no treatment: 0.8 [0.7–1.0]), 27.4% in eyes treated with anti-VEGF (n = 923; HR [95% CI]: 0.4 [0.4–0.5]), and 25.6% in eyes treated with anti-VEGF plus laser (n = 293; HR [95% CI]: 0.5 [0.4–0.7]) compared with 49.9% in eyes with no treatment (n = 8930).ConclusionsDME and PDR development rates increased with increasing baseline NPDR severity. Approximately half of anti-VEGF‒naive eyes with severe NPDR progressed to PDR within 4 years in US clinical practice. The progression rate from severe NPDR to PDR was approximately halved with anti-VEGF versus no treatment.