Category Archives: MS Treatment

Faheem Hasnain, chief executive of La Jolla-based Receptos, with other company members in the lab. For a young biotech company looking to woo investors, it helps to have promising products. Having experienced management helps even more. Receptos, a developer of drugs for autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, has both. That combination helps explain why shares of the La Jolla company have skyrocketed since it held its initial public offering last May at $14 per share. Even in a surging biotech stock market, the performance of Receptos stands out. Receptos closed Tuesday at $46.39, up $1.97, or 4.4 percent, boosting the companys market value above $1 billion. Those who bought at the IPO price have tripled their investment to date. (During the same time, the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index rose about 56 percent.) Moreover, Receptos held a secondary offering in January. It raised $102 million, compared to $73 million from its IPO. Receptos has good use for the additional money, says its chief executive, Faheem Hasnain. In December, the company released positive results in a mid-stage trial of its drug RPC1063 for multiple sclerosis, a progressively debilitating disease of the central nervous system. The results take much of the risk out … Continue reading →

Media Release 24th February 2014 Surgeon Campaigns for One Dose, One Time Early Stage Breast Cancer Treatment to be Funded in New Zealand The surgeon who introduced a revolutionary one dose, one time treatment for early-stage breast cancer to New Zealand is campaigning for it to be made available through the public health system. Last year Auckland Breast Surgeon Dr Erica Whineray Kelly and a team of Auckland breast cancer specialists formed their own service, Focus Radiotherapy, to bring the new treatment option, using the Zeiss Intrabeam intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) system, to the Southern Cross Hospital, North Harbour Auckland, but they want to make it available to women across the country through the health service. The Intrabeam intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) system avoids the traditional 36 week course of radiation therapy for 80% of patients and eliminates the need for up to a further 25 visits to hospital for post-operative radiotherapy. This is much more convenient for patients, would save the health service money and could dramatically reduce waiting lists. Dr Erica Whineray Kelly says: `This may be an excellent therapy option for women having breast-conserving surgery. We are the first and only centre in New Zealand offering this revolutionary treatment. … Continue reading →

Now that you finally have a name -- multiple sclerosis -- to match the symptoms that have been plaguing you, you've probably got a lot of questions about how to treat those symptoms and keep your condition from getting worse. Although researchers haven't yet discovered a cure for MS, there are many effective medications to help manage your disease. Your doctor will work closely with you to find the treatment that works best for you while causing the fewest side effects. Here is a rundown of your MS treatment options. If you have active relapsing-remitting MS, your doctor will first treat you with one of the disease-modifying drugs. They're called disease-modifying drugs because they can actually slow down the progression of MS and prevent relapses to keep you active for longer. These drugs work by suppressing the immune system so that it doesn't attack the protective coating (myelin) surrounding the nerves. Disease-modifying drugs that reduce the number of flares include: Disease-modifying drugs that have been shown to reduce flares and slow progression of MS include: Both the interferon drugs and Copaxone are considered to be very safe. Most of the side effects that do occur stem from the injection itself, … Continue reading →

Kessler Foundation researchers have found that among persons with multiple sclerosis, self-generation may be influenced by variables such as task meaningfulness during learning and memory. They also found that type of task (functional versus laboratory) had a significant effect on memory. This is the first controlled investigation of therapeutic and patient-specific factors that supports the inclusion of self-generation in cognitive rehabilitation. The study was published in the January issue of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation: An International Journal. Yael Goverover, PhD, OT, is a Visiting Scientist at Kessler Foundation. She is an associate professor at New York University. Dr. Goverover is a recipient of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research Fellowship award (Mary Switzer Award). The researchers studied two groups: 35 persons with MS who had moderate to severe learning and memory impairments (SEVERE-MS), and 35 persons with little to no impairment (MILD-MS). All the participants learned two types of tasks (functional everyday tasks and laboratory tasks), each in two learning conditions (Provided and Generated). Participants were required to recall the information immediately, 30 minutes, and 1 week following initial learning. Significantly more words were recalled from the generated condition, a finding that was consistent for both SEVERE-MS and MILD-MS. Also, … Continue reading →

Updated: Friday, February 21 2014, 10:49 PM CST The FDA has hit a new nerve with the medical community. A drug to treat multiple sclerosis is not approved in the United States, even though it was approved in three other countries. The controversy is whether the trials on the drug Lemtrada were done correctly. Lemtrada was tested against another drug that was already on the market to see if it worked better. Normally, studies are done with the actual drug and placebo, but in this case, the patients and doctors knew which drugs they took. The FDA said based on the unusual design of the trials, it does not have clear answers on if Lemtrada worked or not. However, patients and doctors involved with the study insisted it was effective. It took 29 years before Russell McCoy's life centered on needles and medicine. To control his multiple sclerosis, Russell gives himself shots three days a week. His life now is a 180-degree difference from his life before he was diagnosed six years ago. "The left side of my body started to deplete," McCoy said. "I couldn't keep up with doing things." Russell faces daily debilitating symptoms. His muscles weakened and … Continue reading →

"If she had received proper treatment in the detention centre, she might not be in her current condition." Ms Cao was sent to an emergency clinic in Beijing on Tuesday, where her brother Cao Yunli was allowed to visit her. He reported that she was in a coma and breathing with the help of a ventilator. On Thursday evening, she was transferred to intensive care at the 309 Military hospital, which has a specialist tuberculosis unit, and has now regained consciousness. One of her friends who visited her in the emergency clinic said Ms Cao had choked because of the fluid in her lungs. Ms Wang said a new infection has complicated the treatment of Ms Cao's tuberculosis. Ms Cao's health was frail even before her arrest, a legacy of two spells in labour camps. Her latest detention came as she tried to travel to a training session in Geneva on the mechanics of the United Nations human rights review process. Since 2008, Ms Cao has campaigned for independent voices to be allowed to take part in this process, known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). While China stated to the UN that "broad public input on the report was … Continue reading →

Fort Lauderdale, FL (PRWEB) February 20, 2014 Cornerstone Recovery Center is proud to host the 3rd Family Night event at its drug rehab center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The two-hour event will be hosted at Cornerstones Fort Lauderdale addiction treatment center from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm on Friday, February 28, 2014. Once again, the family event will be facilitated by alcohol and drug addiction therapist Barbara Hernandez, MS, LMHC. Based on the success of the first two Family Night events in December and January, the Ft. Lauderdale rehab center plans to continue helping the families of those that are attending or have attended their alcohol and drug addiction treatment programs. This event gives the family members and friends of clients that are currently in rehab at the Fort Lauderdale addiction treatment center a chance to learn about the treatment process and connect with other families going through the a similar situation. Family and friends can ask questions about the treatment programs and recovery process without their loved ones present. They will also join an interactive therapy session with Ms. Hernandez. The aim of these meetings is to give the family members a chance to learn how to better support … Continue reading →

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WDEF) - Katy Mena's struggle with Multiple Sclerosis started when she was 19-years-old. Mena adds, "I had been home for the weekend and I was getting ready to head back to the University of Georgia when all of a sudden my vision went double and I was seeing two of everything." A spinal tap and MRI revealed news that's hard to swallow for an adult, much less a teenager. Mena says, "Itching and tingling on my skin, the inability to use my left arm, consistent limp in my left leg. It feels like a band is strapped around your torso and just squeezing in on it." That's what Mena says she had to live with until she discovered a treatment called Lemtrada. Mena adds, "Its an IV Chemo. It's still in research trials." But that's where it will stay for now. The FDA recently decided not to approve Lemtrada, even though research shows it is accepted in Canada, Europe, and Mexico. Mena adds, "It's upsetting to me for the patients who won't have the opportunity to try this drug that really is so important in being able to manage and live your life." Mena's mother also suffered from … Continue reading →

SINGAPORE - Intrigued by how real life can be modelled by economic concepts and theories, Ms Regina Ng, 23, took a double degree in economics and business management at the Singapore Management University (SMU). She specialised in the Quantitative Economics Track (QET), which focuses on technical and quantitative treatment of the subject, applying mathematics and statistics to economic analysis to understand and give empirical content to economic relations. SMU is known for its seminar-style teaching, where the small class size meant that lessons tend to be interactive and vibrant. "There was a lot of collaborative learning, when we would share ideas and help one another through any difficulties faced in understanding what was taught in class," says Ms Ng. "While the QET is technical in nature, the professors are very capable in explaining the intuition behind the formulas and numbers. The course provided good training in intellectual perseverance, to persist in thinking through complex issues. I would recommend QET for someone who is serious about pursuing a career in the field of economics, as the rigorous coursework creates a strong foundation." Her course also included subjects such as Facilitation and Counselling Skills, where students practised facilitation techniques, active listening and … Continue reading →

A new study provides evidence that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is highly prevalent in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), and it suggests that OSA may be a contributor to the fatigue that is one of the most common and debilitating symptoms of MS. Results show that one-fifth of MS patients surveyed in a large tertiary MS practice carried a diagnosis of OSA, and more than half were found to have an elevated risk for OSA based on a validated screening tool. Further analysis showed that OSA risk was a significant predictor of fatigue severity, even after adjusting for potential confounders such as age, gender, body mass index (BMI), sleep duration and depression. "OSA may be a highly prevalent and yet under-recognized contributor to fatigue in persons with MS," said lead author and principal investigator Tiffany J. Braley, MD, MS, an Assistant Professor of Neurology from the University of Michigan Multiple Sclerosis and Sleep Disorders Centers in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Our study suggests that clinicians should have a low threshold to evaluate MS patients for underlying sleep disturbances." The study results appear in the Feb. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, which is published by the American Academy … Continue reading →