Abstract
Purpose :
To assess safety and tolerability of intraocularly applied cetuximab as an epidermal growth factor receptor antibody.
Methods :
The experimental study included a group of adult rabbits (body weight: 2.4kg) and a group of young rabbits (body weight: 1.6 kg). All rabbits received three intravitreal injections of 0.5 mg cetuximab (Erbitux®) (0.10 mL) (in a concentration of 5mg cetuximab / mL) into their right eyes in 4-week intervals, while the contralateral eyes received intravitreal injections of Ringer's solution in the same volume at the same time points. After each injection, the intraocular pressure was measured in both eyes. All animals underwent regular ophthalmological examinations at baseline and at two-week intervals, including inspection of the external eye, ophthalmoscopy, tonometry, fundus photography and ocular biometry.
Results :
The study included 10 adult rabbits with a mean age of 12 months (range: 10 - 14 months) and 8 young rabbits with a mean age of 6 months (range: 5 to 7 months). Neither in the young animal group nor the adult rabbit group did the biometric measurements of axial length, anterior chamber depth and lens thickness and the IOP readings differ significantly between the right (study) eyes and the left (control) eyes (Table 1). None of the eyes showed an intraocular inflammation during the study period or peculiarities of the fundus such as retinal inflammatory infiltration or retinal hemorrhages. Comparing photographs of the anterior segment and of the fundus taken at the study end and at baseline in a masked manner did not reveal any detected difference.
Conclusions :
The repeated intravitreal application of cetuximab did not result in any detected intraocular toxic or destructive effect. The results do not contradict the assumption of intraocular tolerability of cetuximab.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.