Retinal Vasoproliferative Tumors in Real-World Practice

Purpose: To describe the clinical, anatomic, functional, and therapeutic characteristics of patients with retinal vasoproliferative tumors in real-world clinical practice, comparing the clinical features of primary and secondary tumors. Methods: A multicenter, retrospective, longitudinal case series study was conducted, including cases of retinal vasoproliferative tumors at 3 ophthalmology referral centers in Chile between 2006 and 2026. A total of 24 eyes from 23 patients with a clinical diagnosis of retinal vasoproliferative tumor were included. Demographic, topographic, biometric, functional, and treatment variables were analyzed. Parametric and nonparametric tests were used. Results: The mean age was 45.6 ± 15.2 years; 70.8% were primary tumors, and 29.2% were secondary. Most cases were unilateral (91.7%) and active at diagnosis (79.2%), with a predominance in the inferior and inferotemporal quadrants. The mean baseline best-corrected visual acuity was 0.75 ± 0.64 logMAR, and the final best-corrected visual acuity was 0.60 ± 0.79 logMAR, with no statistically significant overall functional improvement ( P = .27). Laser photocoagulation, the most performed treatment, was done in 54.2%. A favorable anatomic response was achieved in 91.7% of eyes. Retreatment was more frequent in secondary than in primary tumors (85.7% vs 35.3%; absolute risk difference, +50.4%; odds ratio, 11.0; 95% CI, 1.06-114.1; Fisher exact P = .069). Conclusions: Retinal vasoproliferative tumors achieved a high rate of anatomic control with currently used therapies; however, functional recovery was limited. Secondary tumors showed a clinically important but statistically imprecise trend toward greater retreatment need; this finding should be regarded as hypothesis-generating and warrants close follow-up.