These disorders include age-related macular degeneration and late-onset primary open angle glaucoma.
AAO believes said it believes the currently marketed genetic tests for these eye disorders offer little benefit or additional insight regarding whether a patient is significantly predisposed to a particular disease, and that a comprehensive eye exam is more effective than any currently available genetic test for identifying treatable disease.
“In the future, genetic tests will likely allow clinicians to provide mechanism-specific treatments to patients at high risk for some molecular forms of AMD,” said Edwin Stone, MD, PhD, an ophthalmologist, geneticist and head of AAO’s genetic testing task force, in the release. “At the present time, however, the cost and risks far outweigh any benefit. Three things need to occur before genetic testing will be useful in AMD diagnosis and treatment: clinically proven evidence that such tests significantly improve the outcome of patients; significantly lower testing costs; and sufficient infrastructure within the medical community to allow proper counseling of the patients about their genetic testing results. Until then, combining a patient’s family history of eye disease with a standard eye exam will remain the best way to determine his or her risk for AMD.”
Dr. Stone provided his assessment of genetic testing research during a news conference at the 116th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
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