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- About 2.8 million people globally live with multiple sclerosis (MS).
- Two-thirds of people with MS move to a worsened state of the disease called secondary progressive MS.
- Researchers from the University of Genoa found hematopoietic stem cell transplants help delay disability longer in people with active secondary progressive MS than some MS medications.
About 2.8 million people worldwide live with multiple sclerosis (MS) — a chronic neurological disease affecting the body’s central nervous system.
There are four types of MS, including secondary progressive MS. This is a later stage of MS where a person’s symptoms steadily worsen over time, potentially causing disability.
Past research finds about two-thirds of people with relapsing-remitting MS transition to secondary progressive MS during the course of the disease.
Treatment for secondary progressive MS focuses on symptom management and slowing disease progression through disease-modifying drugs. There is currently no cure for MS.
Now a team of researchers from the University of Genoa in Italy found hematopoietic stem cell transplants using a person’s healthy blood stem cells help delay disability longer in people with active secondary progressive MS than some MS medications.
The recent study appears in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
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