Flatlining on alemtuzumab; is it worth the risk? #MSBlog #MSResearch
“In response to questions on flatlining on Alemtuzumab. The following is a graph from a poster I presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in San Diego earlier this year. You can see that you are more than twice as likely to remain stable or improve in disability when treated with Alemtuzumab compared to interferon-beta. This refers to 2 years follow-up. However, we know that in the vast majority this effect persists for up to 5 years and probably longer. Alemtuzumab is not for everyone; you need to understand the risks and benefits of treatment and the risks of MS.”
“In response to questions on flatlining on Alemtuzumab. The following is a graph from a poster I presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in San Diego earlier this year. You can see that you are more than twice as likely to remain stable or improve in disability when treated with Alemtuzumab compared to interferon-beta. This refers to 2 years follow-up. However, we know that in the vast majority this effect persists for up to 5 years and probably longer. Alemtuzumab is not for everyone; you need to understand the risks and benefits of treatment and the risks of MS.”
Prof G,Given that we are on the cusp of an era when highly effective treatments such as Alemtuzumab may become available for new diagnosed RRMSers, what is next for Team G? I'm assuming that they'll be less focus on anti- inflammatories (and hopefully no more research on interferon and copaxone etc). Will Team G focus on neuro protection and repair?Many thanks for all the time you and mouse spend on this blog and all your efforts on research.Ian
Anti inflammatories has been ourclinical here and now but our research focus has not been in this area for years although we some more studies on goingWe have the charcot project ongoing and our neuroprotection trials started or getting ethical approval and our symptom control studies. Also we have other anti inflammatory studies
I should clarify this Prof G will continue to try and help get treatment choices to MSer and there arestill hurdeles to climb to get the anti-inflammatories to people in the UK and elsewhere
I was disappointed to see that 24% on Alem got worse. It would be interesting to find out if they stabilised after the 2 years ie whether the deterioration related to damage caused by earlier relapses.
MS is no different to other diseases in that some forms of it will be curable whilst the majority will still become progressively worse. Eventually, more people may benefit when better and safer drugs come along.I think fingolimod is the best drug for MS.
It would be interesting to know how far into the course of the disease these people were treated. Maybe 5% of those treated in the first year got worse, but 40% treated in year 5 got worse?
"you are more than twice as likely to remain stable or improve in disability when treated with Alemtuzumab compared to interferon-beta"But to me it looks like 59.3% on interferon are stable or improved vs 75.9% on alemtuzumab. Have I got this wrong? Don't see where "twice as likely" comes from