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Reduction of Disease Activity and Disability With High-Dose Cyclophosphamide in Patients With Aggressive Multiple Sclerosis
Chitra Krishnan, MHS;
Adam I. Kaplin, MD, PhD;
Robert A. Brodsky, MD;
Daniel B. Drachman, MD;
Richard J. Jones, MD;
Dzung L. Pham, PhD;
Nancy D. Richert, MD, PhD;
Carlos A. Pardo, MD;
David M. Yousem, MD, MBA;
Edward Hammond, MD, MPH;
Megan Quigg, BA;
Carrilin Trecker, BA;
Justin C. McArthur, MBBS, MPH;
Avindra Nath, MD;
Benjamin M. Greenberg, MD, MHS;
Peter A. Calabresi, MD;
Douglas A. Kerr, MD, PhD
Arch Neurol. 2008;65(8):1044-1051. Published online June 9, 2008 (doi:10.1001/archneurol.65.8.noc80042).
Objective To explore the safety and effectiveness of high-dose cyclophosphamide (HiCy) without bone marrow transplantation in patients with aggressive multiple sclerosis (MS).
Design A 2-year open-label trial of patients with aggressive relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) given an immunoablative regimen of HiCy (50 mg/kg/d for 4 consecutive days) with no subsequent immunomodulatory therapy unless disease activity reappeared that required rescue therapy.
Setting The Johns Hopkins University Multiple Sclerosis Center, Baltimore, Maryland.
Patients A total of 21 patients with RRMS were screened for eligibility and 9 patients were enrolled in the trial. Patients were required to have 2 or more gadolinium-enhancing lesions on each of 2 pretreatment magnetic resonance imaging scans, at least 1 clinical exacerbation in the 12 months prior to HiCy treatment, or a sustained increase of 1.0 point or higher on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) in the preceding year.
Intervention Patients received 50 mg/kg/d of cyclophosphamide intravenously for 4 consecutive days, followed by 5 µg/kg/d of granulocyte colony–stimulating factor 6 days after completion of HiCy treatment, until the absolute neutrophil count exceeded 1.0 x 109 cells/L for 2 consecutive days.
Main Outcome Measures The primary outcome of the study was the safety and tolerability of HiCy in patients with RRMS. Secondary outcome measures included a change in gadolinium-enhancing lesions on magnetic resonance images and a change in disability measures (EDSS and Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite).
Results Nine patients were treated and followed up for a mean period of 23 months. Eight patients had failed conventional therapy and 1 was treatment naive. The median age at time of entry was 29 years (range, 20-47 years). All patients developed transient total or near-total pancytopenia as expected, followed by hematopoietic recovery in 10 to 17 days, stimulated by granulocyte colony–stimulating factor. There were no deaths or unexpected serious adverse events. There was a statistically significant reduction in disability (EDSS) at follow-up (mean [SD] decrease, 2.11 [1.97]; 39.4%; P = .02). The mean (SD) number of gadolinium-enhancing lesions on the 2 pretreatment scans were 6.5 (2.1) and 1.2 (2.3) at follow-up (81.4% reduction; P = .01). Two patients required rescue treatment with other immunomodulatory therapies during the study owing to MS exacerbations.
Conclusion Treatment with HiCy was safe and well tolerated in our patients with MS. Patients experienced a pronounced reduction in disease activity and disability after HiCy treatment. This immunoablative regimen of cyclophosphamide for patients with aggressive MS is worthy of further study and may be an alternative to bone marrow transplantation.
Author Affiliations: Departments of Neurology (Mss Krishnan and Quigg and Drs Kaplin, Drachman, Pardo, McArthur, Nath, Greenberg, Calabresi, and Kerr), Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Drs Kaplin and Hammond and Ms Trecker), Radiology (Drs Yousem and Pham), Pathology (Dr McArthur), and Epidemiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health (Dr McArthur), Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine (Dr Brodsky), and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (Drs Brodsky and Jones), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland (Dr Richert).
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