Background We set out a systemic review to evaluate whether off-label bevacizumab is as safe as licensed ranibizumab and whether bevacizumab can be justifiably offered to individuals as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration with powerful evidence of no differential risk. than with ranibizumab (RR?=?1.3; 95% CI 1.0-1.7). Arterial thromboembolic events were equally distributed among the organizations. Indirect assessment: Ranibizumab versus any control (5 tests 4054 individuals): The two year results of three landmark tests showed that while complete rates of CFTR-Inhibitor-II severe ocular AE were low (≤2.1%) family member harm was significantly raised (RR?=?3.1; 95% CI 1.1-8.9). A significant increase in nonocular haemorrhage was also CFTR-Inhibitor-II observed with ranibizumab (RR?=?1.7; 95% CI 1.1-2.7). Bevacizumab versus any control (3 tests 244 individuals): We were unable to judge the security profile of bevacizumab due to the poor IL-15 quality of AE monitoring and reporting in the tests. Conclusions Evidence from head-to-head tests increases concern about an increased risk of ocular and multiple systemic AE with bevacizumab. Consequently clinicians and individuals should continue to cautiously weight up the benefits and harms when choosing between the CFTR-Inhibitor-II two treatment options. We also emphasize the need for studies that are powered not just for efficacy but for defined security outcomes based on the signals detected with this systematic review. Intro Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in people over the age of 50 in the developed world [1]. Although an estimated 80% of individuals with AMD have the non-neovascular form [2] the neovascular (damp or exudative) form is responsible for almost 90% of severe visual loss resulting from AMD [3]. Anti-angiogenic therapy e.g. anti-vascular endothelial growth factors (anti-VEGF) which seeks to prevent further neovascularization rather than only destroy it is the latest approach to the treatment of neovascular AMD. Currently the most commonly used VEGF antagonists are ranibizumab (Lucentis Genentech Inc. South San Francisco CA) and bevacizumab (Avastin; Genentech Inc. South San Francisco CA). Ranibizumab which is an antibody fragment form the bevacizumab molecule with an increased binding affinity for those forms of VEGF has been approved for the treatment of individuals with neovascular AMD by the Food and Drug Administration and by the Western Mediciens Agency since 2006 and 2007 respectively. The costs of ranibizumab however are enormous. Using monthly injections with a dose of 0.5 mg the annual costs come to more than US$23 000 per patient [4]. In contrast to ranibizumab bevacizumab was not developed for the treatment of AMD and consequently has no regulatory approval for this indicator or mode of administration. Bevacizumab is definitely approved for the treatment of specific cancers e.g. metastatic colorectal malignancy. In chemotherapy regimens bevacizumab is definitely associated with an increased risk of thromboembolic events [5] haemorrhage [6] and mortality [7]. However intravitreal bevacizumab is definitely given at a dose of 1 1 to 2 2.5 mg which is at least 150 times less than the systemic dose used in chemotherapy [8]. The 1st statement of intravitreal bevacizumab administration for neovascular CFTR-Inhibitor-II AMD was published in 2005 [9]. After this initial report several case series which (apparently) support the CFTR-Inhibitor-II effectiveness and security of bevacizumab were published [10]-[13]. The costs of intravitreal bevacizumab are much less than for ranibizumab. A single dose of bevacizumab costs 40 instances less than a single dose of ranibizumab [4]. This cost differential has important economic implications when extrapolated to the more than 250 0 individuals who are treated for neovascular AMD yearly in the United States. It is obvious that the low costs and the encouraging results on visual acuity have led to a common off-label use of bevacizumab. Recently a long awaited head-to-head assessment from the United CFTR-Inhibitor-II States has been published [14]. The results of this trial support the effectiveness of bevacizumab and the authors conclude that both anti-VEGF have equivalent effects on visual acuity when given according to the same routine. However up to now security and tolerability of bevacizumab in comparison to ranibizumab have not been sufficiently assessed. For example our group carried out a critical assessment of bevacizumab primarily centered.