Saskatchewan-funded MS trial will proceed

Patients who underwent the so-called liberation treatment for multiple sclerosis experienced no measurable benefit from the procedure, a study commissioned by the government of Newfoundland and Labrador found.

The results of the small, observational study were announced in St. John's by lead investigator Dr. William Pryse-Phillips, a professor emeritus of neurology at Newfoundland's Memorial University.

Pryse-Phillips said he had gone into the study hopeful the treatment might have something to offer his MS patients, but completed it convinced the people who had the vein-opening procedure didn't experience any gains.

"I am disappointed. I had hoped. I cannot recommend this therapy on the basis of these results at this time," he said during a news conference on Wednesday, the video of which is posted on the Department of Health and Community Service's website.

The province spent $400,000 on the study, which compared 30 patients with MS who had travelled outside the province to have the therapy and 10 who did not. Participants were subjected to an array of tests before the treatment and then at intervals of one month, three months, six months and one year post-procedure.

Saskatchewan's government is spending $2.2 million to help fund an Albany, N.Y.-based clinical trial in which 86 of the province's residents will take part.

The Albany study will see half of the participants receive the treatment while others will not. Neither the patients nor the researchers will know which group patients are in.

"The 3,500 Saskatchewan people with MS deserve some answers and so do the thousands of others suffering from this disease," read a statement issued by the provincial government. "Our government remains committed to Saskatchewan MS patients participating in (the) clinical trial at the Albany Medical Center in New York. (The) trial will be the largest double-blind study to date and we will soon seeing Saskatchewan MS patients travelling to Albany."

Dr. Paolo Zamboni has hypothesized that MS is not a neurodegenerative disease, as has been thought, but a disease resulting from collapsed veins in the neck and upper chest. Blockages in the veins of MS patients prevent blood from draining properly from the brain, and the pooled iron-rich blood damages brain tissues, Zamboni suggests.

While clinicians in Canada do not do the unproven procedure, many MS patients have travelled abroad to have their veins opened. Enormous pressure has been placed on the federal and provincial governments, both to fund clinical trials and to cover the treatment.

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Saskatchewan-funded MS trial will proceed