The purpose of the BEAT-MS study is to compare chemotherapy followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (AHSCT) – a type of bone marrow transplantation – to the most effective currently approved medicines regularly used to treat relapsing MS (called BAT for “best available therapy”).
AHSCT replaces the immune cells that are causing MS. It has been shown to improve relapsing MS in patients for whom regular medicines did not work. The treatment involves, first, collecting an individual’s own bone marrow stem cells. Next, these stem cells are then frozen and stored. Then, the patient receives chemotherapy, which depletes the cells in their immune system that include those cells implicated in causing MS. Finally, the stored stem cells are thawed and given back to the patient through an infusion.
The best available treatments are chosen from among those recently approved for the treatment of MS that have not yet been tried by the study participant.
Jeffrey Cohen, MD, Cleveland Clinic
George Georges, MD, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Paolo Muraro, MD, PhD, Imperial College London
Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
