Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) today announced results from the PROGRESS Trial, marking a turning point in the management of moderate aortic stenosis (AS). The trial demonstrated that transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) was superior to clinical surveillance in the primary composite endpoint of death or heart failure events at two years in moderate AS patients with at-risk features. The late-breaking results were presented at Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2026, Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s annual scientific symposium, and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Moderate AS has historically been viewed as relatively benign and managed through passive clinical surveillance with an echocardiogram every one to two years. The PROGRESS Trial findings showed that moderate AS is not a homogeneous condition and that echocardiographic severity alone may underestimate clinical risk.

In the randomized trial, TAVR demonstrated superiority to clinical surveillance, with a 33% relative reduction in the composite primary endpoint of death or a heart failure event at two years, with event rates of 16.7% and 23.9%, respectively.

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