Clinical observations on the use of new anti-VEGF drug, conbercept, in age-related macular degeneration therapy: a meta-analysis

PURPOSE: Conbercept is a new anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drug approved for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Although this novel drug has been widely used in clinic, unlike other anti-VEGF drugs, validation and consensus on its method of clinical application and clinical safety have not yet been achieved. METHODS: Relevant literature was searched on PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Internet, and Wanfang Data. Stata 12.0 was used for data analysis. Random- and fixed-effect models were employed to evaluate heterogeneity. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central retinal thickness (CRT) were utilized to measure the improvement of AMD patients. RESULTS: In this study, we analyzed conbercept administration and compared its application with other control clinical methods for AMD treatment. Ranibizumab, triamcinolone, and traditional transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT) were administered in the control group. No differences were found in the BCVA and CRT improvement between the groups treated with conbercept and ranibizumab. However, the conbercept group had a lower serum VEGF level. After 3 months of treatment, conbercept led to a more significant BCVA and CRT improvement than triamcinolone. A more considerable BCVA improvement was observed in the group treated with conbercept than in the group treated with TTT. Moreover, even 6 months after the treatment, the effect of conbercept on CRT improvement was still more pronounced than that of TTT. CONCLUSION: In AMD patients, conbercept exerts considerably more positive effects on the long-term BCVA and CRT improvement than triamcinolone and TTT. The serum VEGF level in the conbercept group was lower than that in the ranibizumab group.