Anik Tremblay Alberta

Experts seek answers on

treatment of multiple sclerosis

PRNoticias 12/04/2011
Last week was held in Barcelona a meeting of experts related to Multiple Sclerosis (MS) 'Inter-hospital Day on relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). " The purpose of this meeting was to update knowledge on the treatment of patients and analyze the risks of therapies.

The treatment of a chronic debilitating disease like multiple sclerosis, patient safety is paramount, experts say. In this regard, Dr. Elvira Munteis, Head of the Consultation Multiple Sclerosis Hospital del Mar and organizer of the meeting says that "the main problem that the disease is extremely heterogeneous and that no patient is the same as another and throughout the course of the disease you'll find surprises. "

One treatment that has raised expectations higher both among patients and neurologists has been Natalizumab therapy . This drug has shown clear benefits in a large percentage of patients, at least 6 of 10 patients treated with the drug have shown improvements, several studies indicate.

'usually is a very well tolerated drug with an acceptable safety profile. However, in a very small percentage of persons may, as an adverse effect, a progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), consisting of a central nervous system infection JC virus. At the moment, to predict it has become a priority for all professionals who work with people with MS, 'said Dr. Xavier Montalban, Director of Multiple Sclerosis Center of Catalonia (CEM-Cat) for the Day scientific meeting at the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona and has collaborated Biogen laboratory.

However, the doctor explains that the group Montlabán, small fortunately, patients have the three factors associated with the development of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML)-prior use of immunosuppressive more than two years of treatment and positive antibodies, is the group of patients who have a risk of a "PML-that would be a small percentage of the population in treatment. At the other extreme are patients who have failed to take immunosuppressants, which are negative and that the risk is quite minimal. We can begin to stratify, to divide the patients about their risk for this disease.

In order to address this issue, we have developed a test that detects antibodies to JC, which can be a means to segment patients into groups of varying risk develop LEMP are treated with TYSABRI. In Spain, the Multiple Sclerosis specialists are waiting to make a first screening in selected centers to demonstrate the effectiveness of this tool.