Longer-term follow-up of a randomized trial confirmed that prophylactic anti-VEGF therapy with aflibercept (Eylea) slows progression of diabetic retinopathy but does not improve visual acuity better than delayed treatment.
After 4 years, 34% of patients randomized to intravitreous aflibercept injections developed proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) or center-involved diabetic macular edema (CI-DME) with vision loss compared with 57% of controls who received sham injections and deferred anti-VEGF treatment (P