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Leukaemia drug could stop the effects of MS

31 October 2008

This research marks a new era in the treatment of multiple sclerosis

Dr Alasdair Coles, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge

Key facts
  • MS is a disabling condition of the central nervous system (your brain and spinal cord).
  • MS results from a problem with your immune system which causes damage to your central nervous system.
  • In the early stages of MS, your central nervous system can sometimes repair the damage caused to your nerves, so your symptoms come and go.
  • Relapse-remitting MS is a type of MS which involves times when you have symptoms (relapses) followed by times of improved symptoms or no symptoms at all (remission).
  • Around 85,000 people in the UK have MS.
  • The symptoms of MS depend on which areas of your central nervous system have become damaged. Common symptoms include tiredness, blurred vision, weakness in your limbs and problems with balance.
  • Alemtuzumab is currently used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukaemia if it hasn't responded well to chemotherapy.

A drug used to treat leukaemia can reduce the effects of multiple sclerosis (MS), new research suggests.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge compared the effects of leukaemia drug alemtuzumab with a drug currently used to treat MS, interferon beta-1a. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that alemtuzumab can stop the progression of relapse-remitting MS during the early stages.

The three year trial included 334 patients with early stage relapsing-remitting MS (a form of MS where symptoms come and go). Patients who were given alemtuzumab were 74 percent less likely to have relapses of symptoms than those who were given interferon beta-1a.

Alemtuzumab also reduced the risk of disability progression by 71 percent when compared to interferon beta-1a.

The researchers found that treatment with alemtuzumab may also reverse some of the disability that MS causes. Some patients who were given alemtuzumab during the trial recovered lost brain function and were less disabled after the three year study than they were at the beginning.

"This research marks a new era in the treatment of multiple sclerosis," Dr Alasdair Coles, one of the study authors, told the Bupa health information team.

"The ability of an MS drug to promote brain repair is unprecedented. We are witnessing a drug which, if given early enough, might effectively stop the advancement of the disease and also restore lost function by promoting repair of the damaged brain tissue," explained Dr Coles.

Lee Dunster, head of research at the MS Society, is delighted with the results of the trial. He said: "This is the first drug that has shown the potential to halt and even reverse the debilitating effects of MS and this news will rightly bring hope to people living with the condition day in, day out."

Although the trial showed that alemtuzumab could be an effective treatment for MS, it also demonstrated that the drug has a number of side-effects, including harming platelets in your blood.

The research - a phase two clinical trial - is still at an early stage. Further studies are needed to assess the side-effects in more detail and investigate whether the drug is effective in the long term.

Two larger phase three trials are currently underway and the results of these trials are expected in 2011 and 2012.

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