Canadian Doctors Have Successfully Reversed the Effects of MS in a Patient

Using Stem Cells

By Erin Davis
June 10, 2016
http://notable.ca/canadian-doctors-have-successfully-reversed-the-effects-of-ms-in-a-patient-using-stemcells/
Last week, we told you about 32-year-old Brooke Robinson and her fight with multiple sclerosis (MS).
A true inspiration, Robinson has continued to live her life to its fullest and remains hopeful that there may
one day be a cure. In our conversation, she told me about a stem cell trial in Ottawa she had heard about.
Now, it wont be too long until the entire country hears about it.
Canadian doctors have managed to reverse severe MS using stem cells, virtually eliminating it from a
patients body. Jennifer Molson had crippling MS before she participated in a study that involved
chemotherapy and a stem cell bone marrow transplant in 2002. Molson was one of a small cohort of 24
people who received the high-risk, experimental therapy.
Led by Dr. Mark Freedman and Dr. Harold Atkins at the Ottawa Hospital, the clinical trial spanned over
13 years.
Of the patients, 70 per cent saw the progression of their disease halted or reversed as their symptoms
began to diminish. While Molson could barely walk or feed herself pre-trial, she now drives, kayaks, runs
and skis, and hasnt experienced any symptoms of the disease for 14 years.
Its been hailed as remarkable by industry professionals, as the trial seems to cure people of their
symptoms.
The experience of the cohort was documented in a paper published this week in The Lancet. Its being
called the first to describe any MS treatment that fully stops the disease over the long-term without MS
medication. This is the first treatment to produce this level of disease control or neurological recovery
from MS, said The Lancet in a news release.

MS affects 20 million people globally, but tends to target females in more temperate climates like Canada
and the northern U.S.
The disease is characterized by an immune system that turns on the host and attacks the protective coating
around the nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord. These attacks can severely damage and destroy the
nerves and protective coating, affecting the communication between the brain and the body and leading to
symptoms like numbness, loss of balance, difficulty walking, loss of control of bowel and bladder, and
even blindness.
Over time, patients lose control of their bodies and are often confined to wheelchairs.
Not all types of MS have the same affects. The least evil of the disease is relapsing-remitting, whereby
the symptoms come and go and can be followed by long periods of remission. For most people, however,
this version of the disease usually progresses into secondary progressive MS over time, whereby the
symptoms start to stick. The most aggressive form of the disease is primary progressive MS. In this case,
patients dont experience bouts of remission, but rather a continuous decline in their health and a
worsening of their symptoms.
At the time of her treatment, Molson had secondary progressive MS. Prior to the stem cell trials, nothing
had worked to better her symptoms.

The treatment essentially involves an extensive combination of chemotherapy and stem cell transplants
that are designed to reboot the immune system. It sees doctors harvest stem cells from the bone marrow of
their patients, then purify and freeze the cells. Patients then undergo extensive chemotherapy before the
preserved stem cells are returned to the patients.

The idea is to wipe clean and reset the immune system so it has no memory of attacking the central
nervous system.
According to The Lancet, the procedure fully halted clinical relapses in all of the patients and stopped the
development of any new brain lesions without any medication. Other stem cell transplants have resulted
in positive short-term results in MS patients, but the symptoms always returned. What makes the Ottawa
trial different is that, unlike previous trials what aimed to suppress the immune system, it wipes it out
altogether.
While promising, the treatment is regarded as extremely high-risk, which places limitations on its
widespread use. There are high mortality rates associated with the procedure; one patient out of the initial
24 involved in the clinical trial died from liver failure. It should also be highlighted that 30 per cent of the
patients did see their symptoms worsen, likely because their MS was already too far along.
Only five per cent of MS patients are eligible for this type of treatment. But for those who are, its being
called a miracle treatment and The Lancet is urging more clinical trials.