People with wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), the leading cause of blindness in the UK, currently manage their condition with an intensive programme of hospital visits and injections directly into the eyeball.
But doctors say the need for monthly appointments and six injections per year on average mean many patients fail to keep up with the regime and lose their sight.
Now a US company is preparing to launch in Britain a new, one-off radiation therapy which could significantly lower patients' need for injections, allowing some to go a year without treatment.
A small-scale study carried out in 21 international centres including King's College London and the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital found that patients given the radiation treatment needed on average a third fewer injections over the following year.
In certain subsets of patients the reduction of injections was even greater, and some patients needed no injections at all over the following 12 months, researchers announced at the American Academy of Ophthalmology conference in Chicago earlier this month.
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