Saving Eyes

Reported October 2008

NEW YORK CITY, NY. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Whether it’s cancer or macular degeneration, many times patients must face the reality that they will go blind. Now, a new treatment is helping save their sight.

The first thing everyone notices about Dove Karn is her beautiful blue eyes -- and it was in Central Park where she came to terms with the fact that she had melanoma in one of those very eyes.

Her tumor was treated with radiation -- but the side effects could destroy her vision. Ocular oncologist Paul Finger turned to a new drug to stop Dove’s vision from slipping away.

"It’s a real paradigm shift … like antibiotics were for infections," Paul Finger, M.D., an ocular oncologist at the New York Eye Cancer Center in New York City, told Ivanhoe. "This anti-blood-vessel drug is saving people’s vision."

Avastin is a shot given directly into the eye. It starves the tumor by stopping the growth of abnormal blood vessels that normally would feed the tumor.

"Avastin stops new blood vessels from growing, but it also prevents new and old blood vessels from leaking -- and the leaking is what takes away most of the patients’ vision," Dr. Finger said.

Dove will need to get shots every 6 to 8 weeks, indefinitely -- but she says it’s worth it!

“This year was the year that I could say I’m in remission," Karn said. "I have a full-time teaching job. My children are fabulous … life is wonderful right now."

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Axel Bang
Public Affairs
The New York Eye Cancer Center
(914) 234-5433
aband@axelbang.com

Whether it’s cancer or macular degeneration, many times patients must face the reality that they will go blind. Now, a new treatment is helping save their sight.

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