Recently, an outstanding discovery in the field of medicine and in the fight with multiple sclerosis has occurred. According to an experiment that lasted approximately 3 years, a drug which was used to treat leukemia actually outperformed the usual treatment MS patients were getting.

The drug, which is called alemtuzumab, it is said to stop the progression of MS and the patients who were getting this treatment were found to have regenerated almost completely. Alemtuzumab is an important step forward and its effects are unprecedented with the drug not only being able to stop the evolution of multiple sclerosis but also to reverse its effects.

Alemtuzumab is an antibody that, since the 80’s, has been used in the treatment of patients suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The study was conducted by testing 334 patients, half being treated with interferon beta-1a and the other half with alemtuzumab.

The results were almost shocking, as the leukemia drug completely outperformed the other drug. The patients have been followed for three years and after this period the ones who were treated with alemtuzumab showed that their brain tissue started regenerating and the sclerosis was completely stopped. The people treated with alemtuzumab also scored higher on a disability test and one of them resumed playing golf, a life time passion.

Alemtuzumab has shown that is clearly superior to the interferon, even though it has some side effects like damage to blood platelets and damage to thyroid function, which can easily be treated by other drugs. Another advantage of alemtuzumab is that is easier to administrate than interferon, the patients receiving 4-hour infusions on 5 successive days the first year and after 12 months infusions over 3 successive days.