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      <Title language="en">PULSAR Extension: Clinical improvements maintained over 156 weeks with aflibercept 8 mg in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration</Title>
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          <Corporatename>German Medical Science GMS Publishing House</Corporatename>
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        <Address>D&#252;sseldorf</Address>
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      <SubjectheadingDDB>610</SubjectheadingDDB>
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    <DatePublishedList>
       <DatePublished>20250513</DatePublished>
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    <Language>engl</Language>
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      <AltText language="en">This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.</AltText>
      <AltText language="de">Dieser Artikel ist ein Open-Access-Artikel und steht unter den Lizenzbedingungen der Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (Namensnennung).</AltText>
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      <Meeting>
        <MeetingId>M0613</MeetingId>
        <MeetingSequence>024</MeetingSequence>
        <MeetingName></MeetingName>
        <MeetingTitle>37. Internationaler Kongress der Deutschen Ophthalmochirurgie (DOC)</MeetingTitle>
        <MeetingSession>Retina II</MeetingSession>
        <MeetingCity>N&#252;rnberg</MeetingCity>
        <MeetingDate>
          <DateFrom>20250515</DateFrom>
          <DateTo>20250517</DateTo>
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      <MainHeadline>Text</MainHeadline><Pgraph><Mark1>Purpose:</Mark1> To describe long-term data on treatment outcomes with aflibercept 8 mg in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) over 156 weeks in the PULSAR Extension. </Pgraph><Pgraph><Mark1>Methods:</Mark1> In the 96-week, Phase 3 PULSAR trial (NCT04423718), treatment-na&#239;ve patients with nAMD were randomly assigned to receive either aflibercept 8 mg every 12 weeks (8q12) or 16 weeks (8q16), or aflibercept 2 mg every 8 weeks (2q8), each after 3 initial monthly doses. Patients who completed the main phase of PULSAR through Week 96 were eligible for an optional 1-year open-label extension through Week 156. From Week 96, patients originally assigned to the 2q8 arm were switched to aflibercept 8 mg and immediately assigned a 12-week dosing interval (2 mg&#8594;8 mg group), and patients originally assigned to the 8q12 and 8q16 arms continued to receive aflibercept 8 mg at their last assigned dosing interval (8 mg group). From Week 100, dosing intervals were modified in both groups if prespecified disease activity criteria were met, with 8 weeks and 24 weeks as the minimum and maximum dosing intervals allowed, respectively. Endpoints at Week 156 included change from baseline in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA). All endpoints at Week 156 were exploratory and analyzed descriptively. </Pgraph><Pgraph><Mark1>Results:</Mark1> At Week 156, the 2 mg&#8594;8 mg group (n&#61;208) and 8 mg group (n&#61;417) reported a least-squares mean change from baseline in BCVA of &#43;4.6 and &#43;3.4 letters and central subfield retinal thickness (CRT) of &#8211;145 and &#8211;148 &#181;m, respectively. On average, BCVA and CRT improvements at Week 96 were largely maintained through Week 156. Among patients who completed Week 156, the last assigned dosing interval was &#8805;12, &#8805;16, and 20 weeks in 78&#37;, 42&#37;, and 12&#37; in the 2 mg&#8594;8 mg group, respectively, and &#8805;12, &#8805;16, &#8805;20, and 24 weeks in 77&#37;, 58&#37;, 40&#37;, and 24&#37;, respectively, in the 8 mg group. No new safety signals were identified through Week 156. </Pgraph><Pgraph><Mark1>Conclusions:</Mark1> In the PULSAR Extension, functional and anatomic improvements were largely maintained through Week 156 in the 2 mg&#8594;8 mg and 8 mg groups. These findings suggest that patients with treatment-na&#239;ve nAMD experience durable improvements with aflibercept 8 mg administered over extended dosing intervals. </Pgraph><Pgraph>This abstract has been recently submitted and will be presented at the 2025 annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).</Pgraph></TextBlock>
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