Abstract: Restasis for radiation-induced dry eye in kids

3 out of 8. 27.3% success rate. 

I just had a flashback.... Some company selling fruit drinks, I'm thinking in the 1980s? Rather conventional happy family ads playing up the amazing fact that they had 10% fruit juice in their drink! (Gosh!) 

So some company selling unadulterated fruit juice seizes the opportunity and runs a series of commercial spoofs on the 10% theme, like a teen boy rushing home and enthusiastically telling his parents, "I got 10% right on my math test!"

Perspectives, perspectives. 

On the other hand, in the world of complex disease it's not all about the numbers. It's about something helping someone somewhere. Bet the three kids in this study, and their folks, were grateful something did.

Sadly, the FDA, and simple drug world economics (or do I mean corporate greed?) have to have compelling numbers. So things that work for some people (and obviously I'm not talking about Restasis which, although it, yes, works 'for some people', has been a blockbuster drug for a long time) never make it to market at all. 

Cyclosporine 0.05% ophthalmic emulsion for the treatment of radiation-associated dry eye in children.

Dry eye disease is a well-known late complication of radiation therapy and is often difficult to treat. We evaluated the usefulness of cyclosporine 0.05% ophthalmic emulsion for the treatment of radiation-associated dry eye in children. Eleven children received cyclosporine 0.05% emulsion twice daily after failure of conventional therapy. After 6 months, dry eye manifestations improved in three children (27.3%). The remaining eight children showed no improvement with cyclosporine 0.05% ophthalmic emulsion. These results suggest that twice-daily cyclosporine 0.05% ophthalmic emulsion has limited use in children with refractory radiation-associated chronic dry eye. Pediatr Blood Cancer © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2013 Jan 17. doi: 10.1002/pbc.24461. [Epub ahead of print]

Hoehn ME, Kelly SR, Wilson MW, Walton RC.

Department of Ophthalmology, Hamilton Eye Institute, University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Memphis, Tennessee; Division of Ophthalmology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee. mhoehn@uthsc.edu.