(ANSA) - GENOA, 21 JAN - The intense immunosuppression performed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation blocks the progression of multiple sclerosis disease.
This was revealed by a disease study published in the journal Neurology and coordinated by the San Martino Polyclinic Hospital and by the Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics and Maternal and Child Sciences of the University of Genoa.
The study of Prof. Gianluigi Mancardi and Dr. Giacomo Boffa involved 20 Italian centers.
All patients with aggressive multiple sclerosis who underwent a transplant in Italy from 1998 to 2019 who were followed for an average follow-up of approximately 6 years were studied.
"The data show that over 60% of patients do not have an aggravation of disability after 10 years from the transplant and in many cases there is also a lasting improvement in the neurological framework", explains the San Martino Hospital in a note.
"The results obtained are of fundamental importance in the current context of the disease", explains Boffa.
Professor Mancardi, one of the pioneers of autologous stem cell transplantation in people with multiple sclerosis, has seen the procedure change over the years: "At first it was aimed at subjects with an advanced stage disease that mirrored a serious disability. Now instead the target is made up of patients who do not respond to therapies, anticipating the autologous transplant in time: when they realize that the person does not respond to traditional therapies, autologous transplantation is one of the most important options ".
(HANDLE).