Leukaemia drug 'may beat MS'

A drug produced to treat leukaemia could be used in fighting multiple sclerosis

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Thursday, 23, Oct 2008 09:09

A drug produced to help treat leukaemia could be used in fighting multiple sclerosis (MS), scientist have claimed.

Research by the University of Cambridge published in the New England Journal of Medicine today shows that Alemtuzumab appears to stop progression of the disease in patients with early stage active relapsing-remitting MS.

Scientists also claim the drug could repair previous damage caused by the disease but warned that it may produce potentially serious side-effects.

Since it was developed in the 1970s, Alemtuzumab has been used to treat leukaemia by killing off the cancerous white cells of the immune system.

Over three years, the Cambridge University scientists examined 334 patients with relapsing-remitting MS which had yet to be treated.

They found that Alemtuzumab cut the number of MS attacks by as much as 74 per cent, a better statistic than achieved by conventional therapy.

It was also shown that the drug reduced the risk of sustained accumulation of disability by 71 per cent, compared to the beta-interferon therapy.

Professor Alastair Compston said: "Alemtuzumab is the most promising experimental drug for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, and we are hopeful that the phase three trials will confirm that it can both stabilise and allow some recovery of what had previously been assumed to be irreversible disabilities."

Lee Dunster, head of research at the MS Society, added: "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.

"More work is needed to prove the drug's long-term effectiveness and we are very much looking forward to the results of the next stage of this important research."