A safety review and meta-analyses of bevacizumab and ranibizumab: off-label versus goldstandard.

ABSTRACT:

Background

We set out a systemic review to evaluate whether off-label bevacizumab is as safe as licensed ranibizumab, and whether bevacizumab can be justifiably offered to patients as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration with robust evidence of no differential risk.

Methods and findings

Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Library were searched with no limitations of language and year of publication. We included RCTs with a minimum follow-up of one year which investigated bevacizumab or ranibizumab in direct comparison or against any other control group (indirect comparison). Direct comparison (3 trials, 1333 patients): The one year data show a significantly higher rate of ocular adverse effects (AE) with bevacizumab compared to ranibizumab (RR = 2.8; 95% CI 1.2-6.5)

SUBMITTER: Schmucker C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3411814 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature