They enrolled 24 patients aged 18-50 from three Canadian hospitals who had all previously undergone the standard protocol of immunosuppressive therapy but had not experiences complete control of their MS symptoms. All of the patients in the study had poor prognoses and their disability ranged from moderate to requiring a walking aid to walk 100m according to standard evaluations of disabilities.
The researchers used a similar method of aHSCT as is currently used, but instead of just suppressing the immune system before transplantation, they destroyed it completely using a chemotherapy regimen of busulfan, cyclophosphamide and rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin.
In a press release, Dr Atkins explains that this treatment is "similar to that used in other trials, except our protocol uses stronger chemotherapy and removes immune cells from the stem cell graft product. The chemotherapy we use is very effective at crossing the blood-brain barrier and this could help eliminate the damaging immune cells from the central nervous system."
The study resulted in 23 of the 24 patients experiencing multiple sclerosis activity-free survival at 3 years (as measured by relapses of MS symptoms, new brain lesions, and sustained progression of EDSS scores). Sadly, one patient in the study died from hepatic necrosis and sepsis caused by the chemotherapy. Prior to the treatment, patients experienced 1.2 relapses per year on average. After the grueling regimen of chemo, no relapses occurred during the follow up period in the surviving 23 patients These clinical outcomes were confirmed by MRI scans as well. The initial 24 MRI scans revealed 93 brain lesions, and after the treatment only one of the 327 scans showed a new lesion
![ME/CFS lecture | Dr Nancy Klimas | 2011 [Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / SEID / New Zealand] - YouTube](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
