Thursday

POSSIBLY CAN'T USE FOR TIM VOLLMER'S COLUMN*** STAN READ AND DECIDE

SEARCHING FOR NEW WAYS TO TREAT MS

Dr. Tim Vollmer, co-director of the Rocky Mountain MS Center at Anschutz Medical Campus, has recently launched an investigator-initiated study to explore the use of combination therapies for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Combination therapy is a strategy that uses existing drugs in combination
with each other to achieve better disease management with fewer side effects. This approach has been used very successfully in other diseases, for example HIV/AIDS, to help people attain a “disease-free” state. The drug combination to be investigated in this study includes Copaxone, an injectable therapy used to treat MS and Rituxan, an intravenous therapy used to treat certain lymphomas and rheumatoid arthritis. Both drugs have been in use for a long time and have excellent safety profiles. They also have different effects on the immune system. Rituxan is an anti-B cell therapy and Copaxone encourages the development of new regulatory B cells. The theory behind using the drugs in combination is that Rituxan will deplete the destructive B cells and Copaxone will generate new B cells. Using this sort of one-two punch, we might be able to reprogram the immune system in way that is more effective than the treatments now available.
Participants in the study must be between the ages of 18 and 55 and live in Colorado or be able to visit Colorado frequently. They must be diagnosed with CIS (clinically isolated syndrome), relapsing-remitting MS, or secondary- progressive MS and have evidence of a relapse in the past twelve months.
Study participants will receive two infusions of either Rituxan or placebo
at the start of the trial and then begin daily Copaxone injections. MRIs will be done every six months. Participants will be followed with monthly phone “visits” and with office exams and lab tests every three months so their progress can be carefully monitored. If someone has a relapse or begins to experience new disease activity the study stops and a different treatment is started.  In the past few years there have been several small studies that explored the use of Rituxan as a treatment for MS and the results were clearly positive. The drug is not FDA-approved for MS, however, which means that insurance companies usually won’t pay for its use. Participants in this clinical trial will receive the drug at no cost to them or their insurance company.