Multiple Sclerosis Drugs May Not Delay Disability

Interferon Beta Treatment Did Not Slow Progression of Disability in Study

July 17, 2012 -- Disease-modifying drugs have been game-changers for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. The drugs help prevent relapses, but now new research questions whether they slow progression of disability from the disease.

In a study of patients with relapsing-remitting MS, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, use of the most widely prescribed disease-modifying drugs, interferon beta, was not associated with a delay in disability progression.

Patients treated with interferon beta were no less likely than untreated patients to progress to the point where they required a cane to walk, which is a benchmark measure of disease progression.

"Treatment with beta interferon was not associated with a delay in progression to disability," says researcher Helen Tremlett, PhD, of the University of British Columbia. "It may be that in subgroups of patients these drugs do slow disease progression, but we were not able to show this."

As many as 2.5 million people worldwide and 350,000 people in the U.S. have multiple sclerosis, a progressive disease of the central nervous system that leaves most patients functionally disabled within a decade or two of diagnosis.

In 1993, the interferon beta drug Betaseron became the first of the drugs known as a disease-modifying agent approved by the FDA for the treatment of MS. Other interferon beta treatments that entered the U.S. market include Avonex, Extavia, and Rebif.

The drugs were approved for the treatment of relapsing forms of MS to reduce the frequency of MS relapses (also known as flare-ups) and to, with some of the drugs, slow physical disability.

Although they are also widely believed to delay disease progression in patients with the relapsing-remitting form of the disease, little research has been done to show this. Relapsing-remitting MS is characterized by unpredictable flare-ups with a worsening of symptoms followed by full, partial, or no recovery of some prior function. It generally occurs early in the course of MS for most people. It can develop into progressive disease, a gradual but steady loss of ability.

The newly published study included 868 patients with relapsing-remitting MS followed for an average of five years during treatment with an interferon beta drug.

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Multiple Sclerosis Drugs May Not Delay Disability