] some hope for the future?

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> Following is a report of a CLINICAL study which showed good results from

> Stem-Cell treatment:

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> Clinical outcomes after autologous haematopoietic stem cell

> transplantation in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis.

> J Xu, BX Ji, L Su, HQ Dong, XJ Sun, and CY Liu

> Chin Med J (Engl), November 20, 2006; 119(22): 1851-5. Abstract

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> Department of Haematology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital University of Medical

> Sciences, Beijing 100053, China (Email: xujuandail@...).

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> BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a continuously disabling disease

> and it is unresponsive to high dose steroid and immunomodulation with

> disease progression. The autologous haematopoietic stem cell

> transplantation (ASCT) has been introduced in the treatment of refractory

> forms of multiple sclerosis. In this study, the clinical outcomes followed

> by ASCT were evaluated for patients with progressive MS. METHODS:

> Twenty-two patients with secondary progressive MS were treated with ASCT.

> Peripheral blood stem cells were obtained by leukapheresis after

> mobilization with granulocyte colony stimulating factor. Etoposide,

> melphalan, carmustin and cytosine arabinoside were administered as

> conditioning regimen. Outcomes were evaluated by the expanded disability

> status scale and progression free survival. No maintenance treatment was

> administered during a median follow-up of 39 months (range, 6 to 59

> months). RESULTS: No death occurred following the treatment. The overall

> confirmed progression free survival rate was 77% up to 59 months after

> transplantation which was significantly higher compared with

> pre-transplantation (P = 0.000). Thirteen patients (59%) had remarkable

> improvement in neurological manifestations, four (18%) stabilized their

> disability status and five (23%) showed clinical recurrence of active

> symptoms.

> CONCLUSIONS: ASCT as a therapy is safe and available. It can improve or

> stabilize neurological manifestations in most patients with progressive MS

> following failure of conventional therapy.

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