MY STEMS

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Stem cell 'reboot' promising as MS cure
Chemotherapy and stem-cell injection tested in Ottawa
By Dalson Chen, Windsor StarMay 2, 2010
A patient receives chemotherapy treatment in a file photo.Photograph by: Chris Hondros, Getty ImagesWINDSOR, Ont. — Ottawa doctors, who claim a new medical technique can cause a “very long-lasting remission,” are giving hope to multiple sclerosis patients.

“The inflammatory nature of the disease has virtually ceased in everyone who has received this transplant,” said neurologist Dr. Mark Freedman, who led the study with bone marrow transplant specialist Dr. Harold Atkins.

Freedman said he’s hesitant to say that the transplant of bone marrow stem cells can “cure” multiple sclerosis.

“I hate to use the C-word ... but we’ve induced a very long-lasting remission,” he said.

Aaron Prentice, 35, said he has been “blessed” to be part of the study, which investigates the theory that a person’s immune system can be reset.

Stem cells are harvested from the patient’s blood. Next, the patient’s immune system is destroyed through intense chemotherapy. Then the stem cells are reintroduced with the hope that when the immune system grows back, it will no longer attack the nervous system.

“Kind of like rebooting a computer,” said the Windsor man.

Multiple sclerosis causes the body’s own immune system to attack the fatty myelin sheaths that surround the axons that transmit electrical signals between the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. This hampers the ability of the cells to communicate, leading to a weakening and wasting of the muscles.

Freedman and Atkins plan to release the results of the research later this year.

Prentice was living in British Columbia and working as a plumber when he first started experiencing some of the symptoms of multiple sclerosis: dizziness, loss of balance, difficulty walking, blurred vision.

He was 24 when he lost sight in one eye, leading to a conclusive diagnosis in 1999.

“It was definitely a shock,” he said.

Prentice learned of the stem cell transplant study through his neurologist.

Prentice said he has experienced no complications, and even his hair — lost during chemotherapy — is growing back. Most importantly, his symptoms have not worsened.

“The study is aimed to stop the progression more so than repair the damage already done,” Prentice said.

“Some cases have shown improvement afterwards, and I’m hopeful for that. But, at this point, I’m happy if it does not progress anymore.”

The treatment was only available in Canada through the Ottawa medical study. Prentice was the last of 24 patients who volunteered as trial subjects.

Part of the criteria for joining the study — launched in October 2000 — was that the patients have aggressive multiple sclerosis and were likely to become severely disabled.

The MS Society of Canada, which funded the study, states that the bone marrow transplants have generally been “well tolerated.”

But officials also warned that “each step of this treatment carries a risk of serious complications. These may be severe enough in a small percentage of patients to be fatal.”

One trial subject died as a result of liver toxicity, leading to changes in the study’s protocol.

Windsor Star

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