Children with multiple sclerosis have better outcomes if they are treated early and with the same high-effective therapies as adults.
- Multiple sclerosis patients treated with highly effective disease-modifying treatments during the initial phases of their disease had less risk of their disability worsening.
- The disease-modifying treatments in question include highly effective antibodies that change the behavior of a person’s immune system.
- Thus, children should benefit from the same high-effective treatments as those offered to adults, as soon as possible after diagnosis, in order to better preserve their neurological capacities.
“Highly effective disease-modifying treatments have been shown to slow the exacerbation of disability in adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). However, their impact on the worsening of disability in pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS) , particularly in the early stages, is not well understood. indicated Australian and Italian researchers. Thus, in a recent study, they wanted to evaluate the influence of high-effectiveness therapies on transitions between five disability states, ranging from minimal disability to gait disorders and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, in people affected by this autoimmune disease since childhood.
Multiple sclerosis appeared at age 15-24 in participants
For the purposes of the work, the scientists analyzed global information from 151 centers spread across 41 countries. This data included 5,224 adults diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as children over the past 30 years. Among volunteers, the average age of onset of the pathology was 15-24 years. The impact of high-efficacy disease-modifying treatments (alemtuzumab, cladribine, daclizumab, fingolimod, mitoxantrone, natalizumab, ocrelizumab, rituximab, or autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation) and low-efficacy disease-modifying treatments (dimethyl fumarate, acetate of glatiramer, interferon beta or teriflunomide), was evaluated on the progression of the disease compared to no treatment.
Disability: children should be “treated early to preserve” their neurological abilities
According to the results, published in the journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, patients who benefited from the most effective treatments, which modify the behavior of the patient’s immune system, from the start of diagnosis, were less likely to see their disability worsen. Another observation: all treatments, even those whose effectiveness was lower, were preferable to no treatment. “Based on our research, we recommend that patients with pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis be treated early in the course of the disease, when disability is still minimal, in order to preserve neurological abilities before they become impaired. are damaged (…) We hope that our study will have political implications. concluded Dr. Sifat Sharminresearcher at the University of Melbourne (Australia).
