Patients with macular degeneration have few options when it comes to trying to spare or prolong their eyesight.
One doctor in Florida is hoping to change that. He is testing a drug normally used to treat a rare blood disorder to see if it helps block the disease progression as early as possible.
At age 84, Arthur Kapel, of Miami Beach, is a pioneer. He is among the first patients in the world testing a possible new treatment for dry macular degeneration at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.
Research leader Dr. Philip Rosenfeld explains how this disease damages the eye.
"What we see here is a cookie cutter like defect where retinal tissue is missing," said Dr. Philip Rosenfeld, an ophthalmologist.
Kapel describes his vision loss.
"On a straight line, if you were looking at something that was level you'd have breaks in it. If you look at a door post, the door post would go up and have triangular breaks in the line," Kapel said.
To compare results, half the patients are infused with placebo, the other half get the drug Soliris. It's FDA-approved as a treatment for a very rare blood disorder.
"The drug is an antibody, and the antibody blocks the disease progression at an earlier stage than we've ever been able to block the disease in the past," Rosenfeld said.
Patients who get the drug as part of the trial get two vials per treatment worth $15,000 and they get 15 treatments at no cost for participating in the research.
"Patients who qualify for this study have intermediate macular degeneration, but they have evidence in a short period of time they will lose vision," Rosenfeld said.
There is a risk of meningitis. All patients are vaccinated against it before starting the year-long trial.
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