M. S. Update
July 2, 2013
Signs mark the 2013 AAN Conference along the exterior walls of the San Diego Convention Centre this past April the world’s largest and most important annual event in the field of neuroscience took place in San Diego, California. Over 10,000 practicing neurologists, medical students and research scientists convened for the 65th American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting.
The week long conference featured educational seminars, scientific presentations, and innovative workshops which enabled attendees to learn about the latest in research while networking with other neurology professionals.
Movement disorders, aging, Alzheimer’s disease, behavioural science, and, importantly, basic research and therapeutic advancements in multiple sclerosis (MS) were among the topics that were discussed during the meeting.
Information was presented via poster presentations, in which researchers display their data visually on a poster, often standing by to answer questions from visitors, or in scientific sessions, where presentations are grouped together by subject.
Of notable interest were the sessions on MS clinical trials, the reported outcomes of which are described in more detail below.
Determining therapeutic advantage of using two MS drugs vs. one
Dr. Fred Lublin from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and Dr. Jerry Wolinsky from University of Texas Health Science Center presented progress on the CombiRx phase III trial extension. The original clinical trial, which began in 2005 with an enrollment of 1,018 patients, was designed to evaluate the potential clinical benefit of combination therapy with interferon beta-1a (Avonex®, Biogen) and glatiramer acetate (Copaxone®, Teva Pharmaceutical) versus administration of either drug alone.
Results from the extension, a long-term follow up, reveal that combination therapy was not superior to either drug alone in terms of reducing relapses.
Combination therapy also provided less benefit than individual drugs for other factors such as disability progression and length of time to first relapse. However, MRI results presented by Dr. Wolinsky showed that patients who received combination therapy had fewer lesions as seen on MRI scans than patients who were treated with either agent alone.
This research provides important insight into the cost-benefit analysis of treatment with combined medications.
Dr. Lublin noted that more research in this area, as well as more accurate measures of disability in MS clinical trials generally is being actively pursued.
Read More:
Link: http://mssociety.ca/en/help/msupdates/msupdate_20130702.htm
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