![]() To understand these therapies, it is important to note that MS is an autoimmune disease that develops sometime after birth, when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the brain and spinal cord. If you think you may be eligible for one of these treatments, you should discuss the possibility with your neurologist and ask for a referral to The Ottawa Hospital’s MS Clinic (if you are not already a patient here). This page is meant to help people understand the two kinds of stem cell therapies available for MS at The Ottawa Hospital. Since having the AHSCT treatment at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Louise has since gone on to have a healthy baby daughter called Joy.Stem cell therapy holds promise for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS), but it can be difficult for patients to find reliable information about the types of therapies available, their possible benefits and risks, and how to access these therapies. She was in a wheelchair and had given up on her family and career ambitions. Three years ago Louise Willetts’s MS had become extremely severe. I’d like to thank Professor Sharrack and Professor Snowden and the team for seeking ways to treat this condition so that people like me can live a life not defined by MS and disability but with possibilities, freedom and optimism.” This is a future that this treatment has given me. “I now have the possibility of living a life without MS and contemplating a future without disability. “Several of my symptoms have now disappeared – I no longer get spasms that go down my spine when I flex my head forward, and my right leg hasn't given way for three years.”Ī recent MRI scan showed she had no signs of the active disease and clinically she has had no further relapses since receiving this treatment. Many regained their ability to walk, run and even dance as a result.Ĭolette Beecher, 50, from Wickersley, Rotherham, was diagnosed with MS in January 2011, and has been relapse free for three years after having the MS stem cell transplantation at Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital in April 2016. ![]() So far the treatment has had a life-changing impact on patients who have the relapsing remitting form of the disease. It is this mechanism that allows the inflammation in the brain and spinal cord that causes problems with vision, mobility, sensation, balance, bladder, cognition, fatigue and pain, to subside and heal. The regenerating immune system is then effectively ‘rebooted’. Once destroyed, the immune system is then rebuilt using blood and bone marrow stem cells which would have been collected from the patient’s own blood prior to chemotherapy. Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was the sole UK site involved in the trial.ĪHSCT aims to stop the damage caused by MS to the brain and spinal cord by ‘wiping out’ the faulty immune system with a high dose of chemotherapy. The MIST trial showed that AHSCT stabilised the disease and reduced the level of disability to levels never previously seen before in research trials investigating new and emerging treatments for MS. The published findings of the first randomised controlled trial in this field confirm the global impact of this treatment on patients with severe inflammatory MS. It is the first study to significantly reverse disability in certain patients with MS. The autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant (AHSCT) team are led by Professor Basil Sharrack, consultant neurologist and Professor John Snowden. Whilst people are most likely to find out they have MS in their thirties, forties and fifties, the signs often start years earlier. MS is a progresive condition which we are yet to find a cure. Over 100,000 people have MS in the UK with around 5,000 newly diagnosed every year. It causes a range of symptoms like blurred vision and problems with how we move, think and feel. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological condition. Support for refugee students and scholars.Conferences, events, visitor accommodation and weddings.Research centres, institutes and networks.Subject taster sessions for Y12 and Y13 students.
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