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Stem cell vs Drugs

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    Stem cell vs Drugs

    National Institutes of Health: New multiple sclerosis treatment trial compares stem cell transplantation to best available drugs.


    The trial is called BEAT-MS (BEst Available Therapy versus autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant for Multiple Sclerosis). It is being conducted by the NIAID-funded Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) in collaboration with the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN). The BMT CTN is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Cancer Institute, both components of NIH. Leading the trial is Jeffrey A. Cohen, M.D., a professor of neurology at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and the director of the Experimental Therapeutics Program in the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research at the Cleveland Clinic.

    BEAT-MS will enroll 156 adults ages 18 to 55 years at 19 sites in the United States and the United Kingdom. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive either AHSCT or one of the best available high-efficacy biologic drugs, and then will be followed for 6 years. The neurologists who periodically examine the participants and assess their level of disability will not know which type of treatment they were assigned.

    The main outcome investigators will measure is how much time elapses between a participant’s assignment to a treatment strategy and MS relapse or death from any cause, if either of these occur, during the first three years of the follow-up period. The researchers also will examine the mechanisms of action of the two treatment strategies and will compare the newly developing immune systems of participants who receive AHSCT with the immunologic features of participants who receive the best available biologic drugs. In addition, investigators will compare the effects of the two treatment strategies on other measures of disease activity and severity, cost-effectiveness in terms of health care costs and individual productivity, and participants’ quality of life.

    “We hope that BEAT-MS will clarify the best way to treat people with relapsing MS,” said Dr. Cohen.


    https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news...vailable-drugs

    #2
    This study should be of some help to doctors for making the right call. Or maybe it will just confuse everybody even more ? Me I’m just hoping that something better will come along before six years are up. Something that is a no brainer. I think they are getting closer! Thanks for putting this up Marco it’s good to know they are still thinking about us, and what might be best.
    It was one agains't 2.5million toughest one we ever fought.

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