Assessing patient perception of risk in ocular stem cell therapies

A wide variety of stem cell-derived therapies are under development for the treatment of retinal degeneration. In order to better understand patient perspectives about these therapies, we assessed risk tolerance using an in-person survey of 178 patients at an academic eye center. Risk of malignancy served as a hypothetical, readily understood, and serious adverse event to be considered in trade for potential visual improvement from a stem cell-derived treatment. The results indicate that patients were willing to trade visual improvement against a risk of malignancy that far exceeds actual risk. Two novel findings were that older patients and those with an intermediate level of visual loss were particularly risk tolerant. The quantitative survey results provide a step toward understanding patient perspectives that will, over the long term, guide the development of ocular stem cell-derived therapies.