New treatment can halt multiple sclerosis, says study
Aggressive chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant can halt the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS), a small study has suggested. The research, published in The Lancet, looked at 24 patients aged between 18 and 50 from three hospitals in Canada.
For 23 patients the treatment greatly reduced the onset of the disease, but in one case a person died. An MS Society spokeswoman said this type of treatment does offer hope but also comes with significant risks.
Around 100,000 people in the UK have MS, which is an incurable neurological disease.
No relapses
The condition causes the immune system to attack the lining of nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Most patients are diagnosed in their 20s and 30s. One existing treatment is for the immune system to be suppressed with chemotherapy and then stem cells are introduced to the patients bloodstream - this procedure is known as an autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT).
But in this study, Canadian researchers went further - not just suppressing the immune system, but destroying it altogether. It is then rebuilt with stem cells harvested from the patients own blood which are at such an early stage, they have not developed the flaws that trigger MS.
The authors said that among the survivors, over a period of up to 13 years, there were no relapses and no new detectable disease activity.
All the patients who took part in the trial had a poor prognosis and had previously undergone standard immunosuppressive therapy which had not controlled the MS - which affects around two million people worldwide.One person died as a result of the strong effects of the chemotherapy, the authors said.
Source: BBC News Health
