Bone-marrow transplant treatment for very aggressive MS?

[agate]

Some researchers in Ottawa have come up with what they're hoping is an effective treatment for very aggressive MS. It has its risks but looks promising. (Thanks to Jeanie and Cherie for calling attention to this.)

Excerpt from an article in the Ottawa Citizen (April 3, 2014) about it:

Quote

The [researchers] originally set out to monitor the development of the disease and find a way to treat it. Their theory was this: Wipe out the entire immune system, reboot it with a transplant of the patient’s own bone marrow and wait for MS to regenerate.

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[SalpalSally]

I'd move to Canada right now, if I had the aggressive type of MS.
I wonder why we haven't heard more about this.? Of course, if I
had had this type of MS, I probably wouldn't have made it to 73
yrs old.

Thanks for posting, Agate.

[agate]

I wonder why we haven't heard more about this.?

Sally, I'm just guessing here but researchers in general respect only peer-reviewed articles, and these researchers are publishing in Annals of Neurology, which isn't on the AAAS list of peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Odd since it's the official journal of the American Academy of Neurology, but they abandoned traditional peer-review some years ago.

Again, this is just a guess.

[Howie]

Thanks Agate. For some reason, this seems like old news, like 10+ years. I'm pretty sure.

[SalpalSally]

I think the operation is old news Howie, but not the wonderful
100% success rate. That's news to me!!!!

[agate]

Thanks Agate. For some reason, this seems like old news, like 10+ years. I'm pretty sure it was for MS. Perhaps now, they see it only to be tried for very aggressive MS.

Nothing wrong with Howie's memory! A memory like a sponge, maybe?

According to the article, work began on this "about 13 years ago." Here's another version of the story:

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And it's a small study. With only 24 people involved, 100% might not be very meaningful. It looks as if the last 13 years have been spent going through phases of the study, and now it's reaching the point where new results might be forthcoming.

[Howie]

I can't delete.

[Frog42]

I know just how you feel, Howie. I've had that happen and it drove me crazy(er)!

[Howie]

It seems like I've deleted posts here before. I guess those holes on my MRI really do mean something's missing.

[Cherie]

It is an old and long term small study that has been multi country. And results do look good. But it has only been used on people with very aggressive forms of MS who do not respond to therapy and decline rapidly. I spoke with Dr. Freedman about this three years ago at CMSC in San Antonio and he alluded to in in a presentation he did in Boston that was only open to MS Drs and Nurses about 5 years ago. Not cheap. And since there are so many effective therapies now available that are less costly than a couple of months in a hospital isolation setting to destroy marrow then replace it, it has not moved into main stream very quickly (my opinion as to the rate of speed)