Risky treatment halts MS

As a third-year medical student Alex Normandin expected to be learning about patients, not become one himself.

But then, the Montrealer and aspiring doctor noticed some alarming symptoms fatigue, numbness and problems with balance and coordination. Researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute confirmed he has a particularly aggressive form of multiple sclerosis, an unpredictable and degenerative disease that affects the central nervous system.

Most patients with MS do not become severely disabled because the illness moves slowly. But in Normandins case, the destruction was so fast that doctors expected him to need a wheelchair within months.

Normandin, however, learned of a cutting-edge treatment run by Mark Freedman and Harry Atkins at the Ottawa General Hospital an experimental bone-marrow stem-cell transplant as a last resort for patients who fail to improve on drug therapy.

Normandin became patient 19 of 24. His transplant took place in Ottawa in December 2008.

The procedure is risky because it relies on toxic chemotherapy to wipe out the patients immune system in preparation for the stem-cell transplant, which re-boots the immune system. One patient died in an earlier phase of the trial.

Normandin survived and spoke to the Gazette in April 2009, five months after having the procedure. At the very least, he said then, he hoped to stop the disease from advancing, never mind fix the damage already done.

But last week, Normandin said the results have proved even more dramatic than he hoped.

Normandin, now a family physician in private practice on the West Island, is no longer taking medication for the illness. The procedure seems to have stopped MS in its tracks, and his fatigue and balance problems continue to diminish daily.

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Risky treatment halts MS