Jackson TL, Soare C, Petrarca C, et al. - In this randomized clinical trial involving 363 patients, researchers tested the safety and effectiveness of epimacular brachytherapy (EMB) for chronic, active, neovascular age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). The Macular Epiretinal Brachytherapy vs Ranibizumab (Lucentis) Only Treatment (MERLOT) pivotal device trial was carried out at 24 National Health Service hospitals across the UK. Patients who were eligible randomized 2:1 and were stratified by lens status and angiographic lesion type to receive either EMB plus as-needed ranibizumab or as-needed ranibizumab monotherapy. The MERLOT trial showed that it did not reduce the number of ranibizumab injections despite the acceptable safety of EMB and was correlated with poorer visual acuity than anti-VEGF treatment alone. Such findings do not encourage the use of EMB as an adjunct treatment for chronic, active neovascular ARMD.