TOPLINE:

Over 24 months, patients with dry age‑related macular degeneration (AMD) who received light therapy with three wavelengths gained clarity of vision, had a reduced incidence of new geographic atrophy, experienced durable improvement in vision-related quality of life, and tolerated the treatment well.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers reported long-term outcomes of LIGHTSITE III, a double-masked, prospective randomized trial that assessed whether a targeted light therapy could safely improve vision in patients with dry AMD.
• The photobiomodulation therapy involved delivering light of three wavelengths (590, 660, and 850 nm) using a delivery device (Valeda, LumiThera, Inc.).
• The study included 100 adults (148 eyes) aged 50 years or older (mean age, 75.4 years; 68% women) with dry AMD and best-corrected visual acuity of 50-75 ETDRS letters across 10 US centers.
• Eyes were randomly assigned to receive either light therapy (n = 93) or an active sham control with a reduced dose from the same device (n = 55). Both groups received six series of treatments over 24 months, and each series included three sessions per week over 3-5 weeks, repeated every 4 months.
• The primary efficacy endpoint was change in best-corrected visual acuity measured in ETDRS letters at months 13 and 21 and a final evaluation at month 24, and safety was monitored by declines in best-corrected visual acuity. Secondary and exploratory outcomes included vision-related quality of life, reading ability, color vision, and contrast sensitivity.

TAKEAWAY:

• Eyes that received light therapy gained a mean of 6.2 ETDRS letters at month 21 compared with a gain of 2.4 letters in sham control eyes (P = .0036) and maintained a gain of 5.6 letters at month 24 (P = .0024).
• At month 21, 61.5% of eyes that received light therapy gained five or more letters, 23.1% gained 10 or more letters, and 4.4% gained 15 or more letters compared with 27.8%, 3.7%, and 0%, respectively, of the eyes that received sham.
• By month 24, fewer eyes treated with light therapy developed new geographic atrophy than those given sham (6.8% vs 24%; P = .007). Scores for vision-related quality of life improved and were maintained with light therapy but declined with sham.
• Overall rates of eye-related adverse events were similar between groups, and no therapy-related serious adverse events were recorded. Color vision, contrast sensitivity, and reading ability were normal or near normal at baseline and showed no meaningful change over 24 months in either group.

IN PRACTICE:

“Slowing progression of vision loss can change the trajectory of the disease and provide immediate improvement in QOL [quality of life], delay permanent vision loss, and reduce overall healthcare costs,” the researchers reported.

“Although powered adequately for efficacy, the trial probably is underpowered to detect adverse treatment effects. LIGHTSITE III shows a modest between-group effect with fairly wide confidence intervals and substantial missing data at later timepoints,” Marco A. Zarbin, MD, PhD, wrote in an editorial accompanying the journal article. “More data are needed to clarify the potential benefits and risks associated with PBM [photobiomodulation] to optimize patient selection.”

SOURCE:

The study was led by Glenn J. Jaffe, MD, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. It was published online on March 3, 2026, in Retina.

LIMITATIONS:

Using a reduced dose of light as sham may have induced biological effects and underestimated the true effect of light therapy. Individual sensitivity may account for greater variability in the group that received sham.

DISCLOSURES:

The study received support from LumiThera, Inc., and the National Eye Institute. Five authors reported being employees of or consultants to LumiThera.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.