Published in

SAGE Publications, Multiple Sclerosis Journal, 3(24), p. 245-255, 2017

DOI: 10.1177/1352458517742532

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Intense immunosuppression followed by autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation as a therapeutic strategy in aggressive forms of multiple sclerosis

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

In the majority of relapsing multiple sclerosis patients, the disease can be quite easily controlled by already available, approved therapies. There are, however, some aggressive cases who continue to have clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) activity in spite of the treatment. These are the cases who may now receive benefit from intense immunosuppression followed by autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT). In this review, we describe the method and the rationale of aHSCT, the more recently published studies that demonstrate its efficacy in selected multiple sclerosis cases, the problems related to safety and the transplant-related mortality risk of the procedure. A description of the ideal patient who can take advantage of aHSCT is outlined and, finally, the ongoing studies which are near to completion or are close to starting are briefly reported.