HALT-MS Year 5 Update: 70% remain in remission

[ActiveMSers]

The just released data from my study: 70% remain in remission, higher than any other treatment for MS. Page two of the Medscape article is most interesting, going into detail about the trial including the adverse events (399), and a question of what to do with the non-responders at year 5. Am I bummed about falling into the 30% category? A little, but that's life with this disease: no guarantees. - D

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HALT-MS: Stem Cell Transplant Durable at 5 Years in MS

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — Most recent data from a small, phase 2 study of autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation for multiple sclerosis shows that two thirds of the patients had a sustained remission of disease 5 years after transplant.

Sixty-nine percent of patients met the primary endpoint of event-free survival.

"That's certainly much higher than any other treatment to this point," Michael K. Racke, MD, professor of neurology and neuroscience at Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University in Columbus, told Medscape Medical News.

Dr Racke is an investigator in the HALT-MS (High-dose Immunosuppression and Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation for Poor Prognosis Multiple Sclerosis) trial). http://www.halt-ms.org/

FULL ARTICLE
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/864443#vp_1

[pushingForward]

Thanks for the update...

Thanks Dave,

Sucks that you are in the 30%, but as you know, this disease doesn't make anything easy. Glad to see there is something with this high efficacy, but I'm wondering if it will ever become appropriate for those of us that have a less severe version of MS, but still have issues that impact our lives significantly...

Weighing the risks associated with "rebooting my immune system" with where I am now - and who knows where I'll be in 5, 10, 15 years... Feels like I am playing a waiting game, hoping that something more "tolerable" comes along.

[ActiveMSers]

Thanks for the note, PF. It is a conundrum, this treatment. Great results, but there is a high price to pay if it doesn't go well. And those odds are pretty high, all things being relative. You have a better chance of dying than getting audited by the IRS, a steep price to pay if your MS is in control....