Speaker: Standardized definitions, endpoints should drive cross-linking trials

As clinical trials for corneal collagen cross-linking proceed, clinicians should use standardized definitions and metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment, according to a speaker at the World Cornea Congress in San Diego.“If we’re going to say that cross-linking prevents progression, we need to measure progression,” Penny A. Asbell, MD, FACS, MBA, OSN Contact Lenses Section Editor, told Ocular Surgery News in a subsequent interview. “The key issues for treatment of keratoconus are prevention of progression and improvement of best corrected spectacle vision. Those are the endpoints that we typically use to determine whether or not the treatment was helpful. Although I must say that for CXL, most researchers concentrate on preventing progression.”