Doctors call MS treatment encouraging (REUTERS – Orlando Sentinel)

Doctors call MS treatment encouraging

Article reprinted from Orlando Sentinal / REUTERS news network 14/09/1996 The success rate was high for patients in the final stages of the nervous system disease. 14/09/1996 – REUTERS – Orlando Sentinel ATHENS, Greece – A team of Greek and German doctors said Wednesday they had come up with a revolutionary treatment for multiple sclerosis and preliminary tests were very encouraging. “The new treatment was highly effective on people in the final stages of the disease who had tried every other method and had no results.” said Dimitris Kountouris, a neurology professor at Greece’s Patras University. Koundouris and professor Hans Kornhuber, the director of Germany’s Ulm University hospital, said their method used a combination o the cancer drub mitoxantrone and immonoglobins to suppress production of white blood cells. “these are not new drugs but existing ones used in a completely different way and in accordance with each patient’s needs.” Kornhuber said. “the key is low dosages over a long period of time to avoid side effects.” The two doctors said they had tested the treatment on 320 people over 18 months who had seen no improvement with drugs such as interferon and cortisone. “Fifty eight percent of the patients showed a spectacular improvement, 40 percent had some improvement and the rest showed no improvement,” Koundouris said. Fifty-two of the patients seemed completely cured, he added. Multiple sclerosis is a degenerative disease of the nervous system affecting mostly white males and females between the ages of 20 and 40. The complete results of the study will be presented in the United States and Germany in next February.

Doctors call MS treatment encouraging (REUTERS – Orlando Sentinel)