Stem Cell Therapy Works Long-Term for MS

                                                                  

LONDON — Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation may work over the long term in patients with severe or treatment-refractory multiple sclerosis, researchers reported here. In a meta-analysis of 15 clinical trials, about 67% of patients were thriving with no evidence of disease activity (NEDA) at 5 years, Maria Pia Sormani, PhD, of the University of Genoa in Italy, and colleagues reported here at the European Comm for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis.

Sormani also noted that 2-year NEDA was achieved by 83% of the 764 patients included in
the meta-analysis. “No evidence of disease activity rates favorably compare with those reported for disease-modifying therapies and suggest that autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation could be considered as a potentially more effective alternative,” Sormani told MedPage Today. 

“In these patients the transplant is almost a miracle, because it stops the disease for a period of time,” she added. “You have to remember that 67% of these patients have been free of disease for 5 years – and these were not your average multiple sclerosis patients. These were patients with very aggressive disease.”

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