NCT02243878CompletedPhase 3
Stereotactic Radiotherapy for Wet AMD (STAR)
StereoTactic Radiotherapy for Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration (STAR): A Randomised, Double-masked, Sham-controlled, Clinical Trial Comparing Low-voltage X-ray Irradiation With as Needed Ranibizumab, to as Needed Ranibizumab Monotherapy.
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Last updated 6 Aug 2025
Brief summary (registry, in English)
This study investigates the use of radiation to treat wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The radiation is delivered using a robotically controlled device that projects overlapping beams of radiation onto the macula, the part of the eye that is affected by wet AMD. Participants will be randomized to receive radiation (stereotactic radiotherapy) or simulated placebo treatment (sham control). They will be followed up regularly for two years, and then again at the end of three and four years for a safety visit. Participants will also receive injections of ranibizumab (Lucentis) into their eye if their wet AMD is active. Ranibizumab is the standard anti-VEGF agent that is used to treat wet AMD. The study aims to determine if stereotactic radiosurgery can maintain vision and reduce the need for such regular anti-VEGF injections.
- Status (registry)
- Completed
- Phase (registry)
- Phase 3
- Study type
- Interventional
- Enrollment
- 411 (estimated)
- First submitted
- 8 Sept 2014
- Start date
- Dec 2014
- Primary completion date
- Dec 2021
- Lead sponsor
- King's College Hospital NHS Trust
- Diseases
- Macular degeneration
- NCT number
- NCT02243878
What you commit to
- Study type: Interventional · Phase 3
- Planned participants: 411
- From Dec 2014 to the primary completion date, Dec 2021
- 30 sites in 1 country
- Visits and tests: ask the trial team, the registry does not list them
Built from the registry fields of ClinicalTrials.gov. It describes the study, not your situation.
Who cannot take part
Copied verbatim from ClinicalTrials.gov and grouped by topic. Only the trial team decides who can take part.
Prior treatment
- Prior or current therapies in the study eye for age-related macular degeneration, other than anti-VEGF agents, including submacular surgery, subfoveal thermal laser photocoagulation, photodynamic therapy (PDT), or transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT).
- Previous radiation therapy to the study eye, head, or neck with the exception of radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism, epimacular brachytherapy to the non-study eye, or Oraya SRT to the non-study eye.
- Intraocular surgery or laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) in the study eye within 12 weeks prior to enrolment.
- Prior pars plana vitrectomy in the study eye.
- Women who are pregnant at the time of radiotherapy.
- Participants with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) or pacemaker implant (or any implanted device) where the device labelling specifically contraindicates patients undergoing X-ray.
Other illness
- Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
- Study eyes with CNV due to causes other than AMD, including presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome (POH), angioid streaks, multifocal choroiditis, choroidal rupture, and pathological myopia (greater than 8 Dioptres spherical equivalent). Participants with retinal angiomatous proliferation (RAP) or idiopathic polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (IPCV) are not excluded.
- Known allergy to intravenous fluorescein, ICG or intravitreal ranibizumab.
- Any other condition, which in the judgment of the investigator, would prevent the participant from granting informed consent or completing the study, such as dementia, and mental illness (including generalized anxiety disorder and claustrophobia).
Other
- Disciform scarring that involves the fovea, in the study eye.
- Visual acuity worse than 6/96 (24 ETDRS letters) in the study eye.
- Lesion size greater than 4 mm in greatest linear dimension, or greater than 2 mm from the centre of the fovea to the furthest point on the lesion perimeter.
- An axial length of less than 20 mm, or greater than 26 mm, in the study eye.
- Contraindication or sensitivity to contact lens application, including recurrent corneal erosions, in the study eye.
- Retinopathy in the study eye.
- Presence of an intravitreal device in the study eye.
- Inadequate pupillary dilation or significant media opacities in the study eye, including cataract, which may interfere with visual acuity testing, the clinical evaluation of the posterior segment, or fundus imaging.
- Current participation in another interventional clinical trial, or participation in such a clinical trial within the last six months.
- Unwilling, unable, or unlikely to return for scheduled follow-up for the duration of the trial.
Who the study is looking for
- Participants must have neovascular AMD in the study eye, for which they have received at least 3 prior intravitreal injections of either bevacizumab (Avastin), aflibercept (Eylea), ranibizumab (Lucentis), or pegaptanib (Macugen).
- Participants must have received an anti-VEGF injection in the study eye within 3 months prior to enrolment.
- Participants must require treatment with anti-VEGF therapy at the time of enrolment, due to OCT evidence of subretinal fluid and/or cystoid macular oedema, and have a macular volume that is greater than the 95th percentile of normal for the SD-OCT machines used in the investigational sites.
- Participants must be at least 50 years of age.
Age in the registry: 50 years to 110 years · Sex: All · Does not accept healthy volunteers
Sites (30)
Sites in registry order. Pick your city on the disease page to sort them by distance.
| Site | City | Country | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stoke Mandeville Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Aylesbury | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Birmingham | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Royal Blackburn Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Blackburn | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Sussex Eye Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Brighton | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Bristol Eye Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Bristol | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Addenbrooke's Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Cambridge | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Essex County Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Colchester | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Leighton Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Crewe | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Royal Derby Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Derby | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Dorset County Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Dorchester | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Frimley Park Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Frimley | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| James Paget University Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Great Yarmouth | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Calderdale Royal Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Halifax | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| The Princess Alexandra Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Harlow | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Hinchingbrooke Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Huntingdon | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Whipps Cross Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Leytonstone | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Lincoln Country Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Lincoln | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Epsom and St Helier Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | London | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | London | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Central Middlesex Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | London | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Maidstone Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Maidstone | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Manchester Royal Eye Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Manchester | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Norwich | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Queen's Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Romford | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Salisbury District Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Salisbury | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Royal Hallamshire Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Sheffield | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Hillingdon Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Uxbridge | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Ashford William Harvey Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Willesborough | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| New Cross Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Wolverhampton | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
| Yeovil District Hospital Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Yeovil | United Kingdom | Unknown status |
Related publications
This page is information, not medical advice. Discuss any trial with your doctor.