Watch time: 3 minutes
“This trial did not attempt to prove that dimethyl fumarate could be absolutely superior to placebo. We wanted to demonstrate as an international consortium whether there is an opportunity. Term outcome?”
Over the years, the treatment options available to patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS) have improved dramatically, including the introduction of several new disease-modifying therapies. Evidence is accumulating to suggest that starting these treatments early offers the best chance of reducing inflammation and damage to nerve cells and slowing disease progression. Radiation isolation syndrome (RIS) is considered a precursor to MS and is an interesting area of research given its potential impact on transformation to MS.
Although not all cases of RIS go on to develop MS, the clinical community, including Darin Okuda, MD, FAAN, and FANA, has hypothesized that early intervention in this condition could have significant biological consequences. standing. Okuda and his colleagues recently published results from his ARISE trial (NCT92639542), the first randomized controlled trial to show disease-modifying effects in patients with RIS. Dimethyl fumarate (Tecvidera; Biogen), a previously approved DMT for relapsing multiple sclerosis, resulted in an 82% reduction in the risk of first clinical demyelination event over a 96-week treatment period. indicated (hazard ratio 0.18; 95% CI 0.05-0.63 ; P. = .007).
These findings were significant as they represented the first disease-modifying effects seen in this patient group. Okuda, director of the Neuroinnovation and Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology Imaging Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center, believes these findings will open the door to a new world of research.in an interview with neurology live®he described next steps following ARISE, questions surrounding RIS that still need to be answered, and ongoing efforts to explore drugs other than dimethyl fumarate in RIS.
