To quantitatively assess retina specialists' preferences for geographic atrophy (GA) treatment options.
Approach:
Study Design: A best-best discrete choice experiment was conducted with 166 US-based retina specialists.
Participants: All participants had at least seven years of clinical experience and managed at least 50 GA patients in the previous year.
Survey Focus: The survey tested five key treatment characteristics: reduction in GA lesion growth rate, risk of intraocular inflammation, risk of progression to wet AMD, risk of retinal vasculitis, and frequency of intravitreal injections.
Key Findings:
Efficacy dominated decision-making, particularly the reduction of lesion growth rate.
Improving lesion growth rate reduction from 10% to 50% influenced treatment choice by 41-52%.
Progression to wet AMD was the most influential safety risk, affecting 18-22% of decision-making.
Intravitreal injection frequency had the smallest impact on treatment preference.
80% of specialists expressed willingness to offer gene therapy for GA.
Interpretation:
Limitations:
The study's findings may not generalize beyond the surveyed specialists.
Willingness to adopt gene therapy depends on future therapies meeting efficacy and safety benchmarks.
