Background: Currently five therapies are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. These agents can reduce future disease activity for many individuals with relapsing forms of MS, including those with secondary progressive disease who continue to have relapses. The National MS Society's Medical Advisory Board recommends that initiating MS therapy with an immunomodulating drug (such as FDA-approved interferons or glatiramer acetate) should be considered as soon as possible following a definite diagnosis of MS with a relapsing course, and for selected patients with a first attack who are at high risk for MS. Some clinicians disagree, however, choosing to defer treatment until the extent of disease activity is more clearly established.
The Debate: E. M. Frohman, MD, PhD (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas) and an international panel of coauthors present the following arguments in favor of early treatment in an article titled, "Most Patients with Multiple Sclerosis or a Clinically Isolated Demyelinating Syndrome Should Be Treated at the Time of Diagnosis" (Archive of Neurology 2006;63:614-619):
The authors conclude that, given that therapies can significantly reduce MS disease activity, then "almost every" patient early in the course of MS should be offered disease-modifying therapy.
On the other hand, Sean J. Pittock, MD, and colleagues (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN) cite the reasons for delaying treatment until the course of MS becomes more apparent in an article titled, "Not Every Patient with Multiple Sclerosis Should Be Treated at Time of Diagnosis" (Archives of Neurology 2006;63:611-614):
The authors suggest that monitoring people with MS regularly with clinical examinations and MRI scans may help to identify people whose course requires treatment with disease-modifying therapies. They conclude that well-designed studies are required to determine whether early, versus delayed, treatment of relapsing MS makes a clinically meaningful difference in terms of the development of disability.
In an accompanying editorial, E. S. Roach, MD (Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC) comments on the two reports and concludes in favor of early treatment (Archives of Neurology 2006;63:619).
"One approach, as proposed by Pittock and colleagues, is to defer treatment until the patient's course is better established, possibly allowing those with less aggressive disease to avoid years of unnecessary treatment," comments Dr. Roach. "But as Frohman and colleagues counter, most people with newly diagnosed MS do progress, and we must consider that treatment could be less effective if started later in the course of the illness."
Dr. Roach notes the necessity for finding specific evidence that some people do not need treatment. "Without such evidence for individuals with MS, it will be difficult to know for sure whether it is ever safe to defer treatment," he concludes. "While it would be wonderful if we could avoid treating some patients with MS, until we can distinguish these individuals from the others, it is probably better to offer treatment to all patients except in the setting of a clinical trial."
Details of the National MS Society's Disease Management Consensus Statement recommending early treatment are available on our Web site at http://www.nationalmssociety.org/Sourcebook-Early.asp .
-- Research & Clinical Programs
Archives of Neurology