Cancer Treatments Applying to Macular Degeneration

Science News Online reported on October 7, 2006 in the article “Improving the View: Treatment reverses macular degeneration” (found at: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061007/fob1.asp) that a modified cancer treatment may help those who may become blind due to the eye disease macular degeneration.

The wet form of macular degeneration, a common eye disease in elderly people, causes optical blood vessels grow at an above average rate causing extraneous fluid to be pushed into the macula, which is part of the eye that allows us to see small details and distinct features. This overgrowth of blood vessels can escalate to the point of causing vision loss. Ranibizumab, a drug used to slow down the growth of blood vessels in cancer tumors by stopping a growth-inducing protein, has recently been tested to prevent the same problem of blood vessel overgrowth in suffers of macular degeneration. In a test spanning a couple of years, the vision of macular degeneration patients who given treatments of ranibizumab improved by at least one line on an eye chart. Though some patients who received ranibizumab did not have any significant improvements in their eyesight, patients whose eyesight did improve did so drastically.

Experts say this type of approach to treating the blinding eye illness has never been tried before. Yet progress still must be made as ranibizumab has not shown possibility of being utilized as a concrete solution. David M. Brown, an eye surgeon from the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, agrees that approaches to medicine are becoming increasingly complex as researchers take a deeper look into how a disease or virus specifically works so that they may create more effective ways to treat the fundamental processes that cause the disease. It is progressive that scientists are taking the creativity to borrow research and science from other areas, making connections and defying the conventional uses of treatments in medicine. Such researchers require initiative, willingness to take risks, and patience due to the fact that testing and observation of their work spans years.

I always find it intriguing when scientists borrow from areas that are usually considered separate from their field in order to progress their own field. Finding common threads in treatments for two dissimilar illnesses shows how the realms of science are interconnected and influence each other. These studies also show that care for the older generation and their well-being is still on the social list of priorities in a society where great emphasis is placed on the faced-paced lifestyles and fresh-faced motivations of the young. I hope that such cross-examination of science becomes more prevalent as many various fields, not just medicine, as the practice has the potential to benefit all types of research and foster amity and solidarity between different studies.