After my #1 highlight #ECTRIMS2019 post, I was sent an email by Antoinio Scalafari, a like-minded colleague, to remind me of their real-life data at Imperial College on alemtuzumab in clinical practice. It mirrors the trial experience and needs a platform for discussion (see below).
In parallel, I heard via the MS grapevine that the MS community does not appreciate me questioning the ethics of the DELIVER-MS and TREAT-MS Trials. Why not? These are pragmatic trials to compare escalation therapy with the strategy of flipping the pyramid (high-efficacy therapy first-line).
Giovannoni. Do we have equipoise when it comes to how we treat active multiple sclerosis? Lancet Neurol. 2019 Jul 30. pii: S1474-4422(19)30227-3. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(19)30227-3.
Don’t I have a right to an opinion? I finish my commentary with a simple question for the trialists: ‘The real litmus test for the investigators of the DELIVER-MS and TREAT-MS trials is the question they should all ask themselves: “If I had multiple sclerosis, how would I want to be treated?” Given the evidence, patients deserve the choice of being treated with a high-efficacy DMT first-line’.
Why shouldn’t MSers with active MS not have the option of being treated with alemtuzumab, or for that matter HSCT?
CoI: multiple