Lemtrada: Near cure?

[Sunshine]

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They're onto something. It brings to mind the stem cell research at NYU that resets the i. U e cells, or is that one from the Toronto stem cell project?

[Lazarus]

Interesting. I think Vollmer talked about it in that lecture I posted under the Original Ocrevus thread. I will look when I have a chance...the farm season has started!

I copied the following from the article you posted which is cautionary about getting overly excited?
"I think it is mostly based on what inclusion criteria you are using," suggested co-moderator Emmanuelle Waubant, MD, PhD, professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. "Sometimes you start patients on a treatment and then they go off it, and I am sometimes surprised how well they do off treatment.
"I think it depends upon the baseline activity when you start treating a patient," she told MedPage Today. "We don't have enough data to tell a patient that they may not need further treatment. This study was not designed to answer the question: Can you stop taking alemtuzumab after 2 years of therapy?"

[Lazarus]

I copied another piece of information from a different web source. The problem is that I have no idea when it was published....could be recent, 3 years ago or more.
"Alemtuzumab (Lemtrada) Approved by FDA
Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved alemtuzumab (Lemtrada, Genzyme, a Sanofi Company) for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). A company statement says that because of its safety profile, “the use of Lemtrada should generally be reserved for patients who have had an inadequate response to two or more drugs indicated for the treatment of MS.” Alemtuzumab (Lemtrada), 12 mg, is given in two annual treatment courses, the first as an intravenous infusion delivered over 5 consecutive days, and the second over 3 consecutive days 12 months later. The company explains the drug is only available through a restricted distribution program, the Lemtrada REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy). "The program is intended to help educate healthcare providers and patients on the serious risks associated with Lemtrada and the appropriate periodic monitoring required to support the detection of these risks for 48 months after the last infusion," it says. “We at the RMMSC are quite familiar with Lemtrada since we have been part of the clinical research teams for over 10 years,” said Dr. Timothy Vollmer, RMMSC Medical Director and Co-Director of RMMSC at Anschutz Medical Campus, “It is a drug with efficacy on par with Gilenya and Tysabri. It will be useful when we need to use a powerful drug and patients have risk issues that preclude the use of our other two most powerful therapies. With good safety monitoring, Lemtrada can be used safely.”

[stillstANNding]

Why am I thinking, "here we go again?"

ANN

[agate]

Lemtrada was given FDA approval in November 2014.

However, as with all of these drugs, there have been some alarm bells, and listeriosis cases turned up recently in patients taking Lemtrada. There have been 22 cases, 16 of them in MS patients on Lemtrada, and 2 cases have been fatal according to this article. It's not clear whether the 2 fatalities were among the MS patients or among the 6 others, who must have been taking Lemtrada for some other reason.

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[Sunshine]

Yes, the safety issues are important. I was more amazed that it stopped MS after only two treatments.that it wiped out the t and B cells and healthier versions of those cells reemerged that did not attack the nervous system.

It was like a reset of the immune system. The Toronto stem cell research also facilitates a reset of the immune system, effectively a cure. But has dangerous side effects...

My favorite is the NYU stem cell project, with Dr Saddiq, which also resets the immune system but has no side effects.

[Howie]

This would be a good time to post some info about my treatment.

I was dxed in '98. I continued working for one year after, until exacerbation #2 struck. I was taking no treatment at that time. While I was doing all the SS paperwork, I began doing some research on MS.

I came to the conclusion that MS had a viral connection, and got my doctor to prescribe Valtrex, an antiviral. I took it faithfully for a little over a year, then stopped.

That was 18 years ago, and the disability I carry today, was damage done during that second exacerbation.

That doesn't mean stop your treatment, it's just the story of my journey with MS. We are all doing what we feel is right. When BBS talks about "resetting the immune system" it seems that's what I did, and made the MS inactive.

Whatever it was, I am thankful.