The final session of EURETINA 2026 looked back over the week. In the first of two parts, we revisit the highlights from AMD, diabetes, tumours, surgery, clinical trials, vasculitis and inherited retinal disease.

The final session of EURETINA 2026, on the afternoon of Sunday 4 October, was a look back over the whole congress. Chaired by Nicole Eter, Anat Loewenstein and Martin Zinkernagel, it brought together highlights selected by the chairs of each main session, with a short take-home message for each. Here are the first seven.

Neovascular AMD

Francesco Bandello presented the highlight from the neovascular AMD session, which was gene therapy. The aim is long-lasting anti-VEGF activity from a single treatment, cutting the number of injections and clinic visits. But, as his key-findings slide noted, other data shown during the congress gave differing results and did not fully corroborate the findings. For more on the gene therapy data, see our late-breaking trials report.

Diabetic retinopathy and DME

Edoardo Midena presented a study of macular pigment, measured by autofluorescence (AF-MPOD). Macular pigments were significantly altered in people with diabetes before any retinopathy appeared, and correlated strongly with HbA1c and BMI. The change may detect early metabolic changes that precede structural ones. OCT showed progressive neuroretinal thinning, and OCTA progressive perfusion impairment, both linked to the fall in AF-MPOD. Prospective studies are needed to test the link in patients at risk of developing retinopathy.

Tumours

Jens Folke Kiilgaard’s highlight asked a pointed question: “Is melanoma a melanoma?” His answer was a comparison of cutaneous and uveal disease. Uveal melanoma grows slowly, spreads through the blood rather than the lymphatics, and metastasises mainly to the liver, in about 90% of cases. Its mutational burden is low, and its driver genes differ: GNA11, GNAQ and BAP1 against BRAF and NRAS in the skin. Immune therapy, which shows an effect of approximately 13% in cutaneous melanoma, has no effect in uveal.

Vitreoretinal surgery

The surgery highlight, presented by Patricia Udaondo Mirete and Mario Romano, compared two European cohorts treated with vitrectomy and silicone oil for retinal detachment caused by proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). In one cohort of 47 eyes, patients also received intravitreal methotrexate: seven injections over eight weeks, with up to eleven if extended. The other cohort, of 72 eyes, did not.

Oil was successfully removed in all of the methotrexate eyes, against 87.3% of the others. Re-detachment at three months was 2.4% against 13.0%, although that difference did not reach statistical significance. Macular results, including cystoid oedema, were harder to interpret because of the heavier surgical burden. The conclusion was that adjuvant pharmacotherapy may improve outcomes in PVR, with higher oil removal and fewer re-detachments, but that other data shown at the congress did not support this. It is an observational study, and the question is still open. Our PVR session report covers the wider debate.

Clinical trials and late-breaking news

The highlight was the 36-month outcome of the PRIMAvera trial, presented by Mahi Muqit of Moorfields. The PRIMA system captures a scene with a camera and projects it as pulsed near-infrared light onto a 378-pixel photovoltaic implant under the retina. This electrically stimulates the surviving bipolar cells, and transparent lenses let patients keep their natural peripheral vision.

Natural acuity stayed stable throughout. At 36 months, 78% of patients had gained at least 0.2 logMAR. The mean improvement of 0.49 logMAR at 12 months was maintained, reaching 0.58 at 36 months, although only 18 patients were assessed at the final time point. The key finding: meaningful central vision can potentially be restored and maintained in advanced geographic atrophy, a new direction beyond simply slowing progression.

Retinal vasculitis

Carlos Pavesio’s section took three causes of retinal vasculitis and made one point: it is frequently a systemic problem, and a multidisciplinary approach is essential.

• Behçet’s disease, common in Turkey, brings diffuse venous sheathing, haemorrhages, moderate to severe vitritis and retinal infiltrates. On angiography, fern-like capillary leakage is a key marker of disease activity. There is no single blood test, so the diagnosis comes from combining ocular and systemic clues.
• Tuberculosis typically causes occlusive disease, periphlebitis and haemorrhages. The patient’s origin and exposure matter, and tests may show only exposure, not the cause of the eye disease, so they must be interpreted against the picture in the eye.
• Syphilis, the “great imitator”, must be excluded in any unexplained inflammation. The protocol is now a non-treponemal test first, then a treponemal test to confirm. Neurosyphilis is often associated with eye disease.

The key message: retinal vasculitis is a potential sign of systemic disease, so identify it as quickly as you can.

Inherited retinal disease and paediatrics

Bart LeRoy compiled six take-home messages from his session:

• Marko Hawlina: follow IRD patients from childhood into adulthood. New therapies are “popping up like mushrooms”, and outcomes have to be compared with the natural history.
• Alejandra Daruich: when patients are carefully chosen, Luxturna has more effect in children than in adults.
• Bart LeRoy: in the PERCEIVE study of patients treated in Europe and beyond, chorioretinal atrophy was seen in 42% of eyes. It should be split into three types: touchdown atrophy (expected), atrophy beyond the treatment area, and atrophy within it, which matters most. Inflammation probably plays a part, along with the mismatch between about 150 billion viral particles per eye and the number of cells receiving them.
• Ana Rodriguez: CRB1 disease runs from maculopathy to Leber congenital amaurosis, and can masquerade as uveitis.
• Isabelle Audo: CDH3-related disease is a syndromic IRD whose striking feature is underdeveloped hair.
• Dominik Fischer: AI can help clinicians outside specialist centres interpret fundus images and guide genetic testing before referral.

Our IRD session report covers more.