Source BBC:
Doctors say a stem cell transplant could be a “game changer” for many patients with multiple sclerosis.
Results from an international trial show that it was able to stop the disease and improve symptoms. It involves wiping out a patient’s immune system using cancer drugs and then rebooting it with a stem cell transplant.
Louise Willetts, 36, from Rotherham, is now symptom-free and told me: “It feels like a miracle.”
A total of 100,000 people in the UK have MS, which attacks nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Just over 100 patients took part in the trial, in hospitals in Chicago, Sheffield, Uppsala in Sweden and Sao Paulo in Brazil. They all had relapsing-remitting MS – where attacks or relapses are followed by periods of remission.
The interim results were released at the annual meeting of the European Society for Bone and Marrow Transplantation in Lisbon. Read on.