Miraculon

I'm going to preface this post with a short disclaimer. My experience with Campath (alemtuzumab) was part of a clinical trial and while the trial's results have been presented to the FDA this drug has not yet been approved for the treatment of MS. I'm not claiming that my experience would be typical of anyone else's outcome. I'm not an agent of the drug manufacturer or any interested parties.

I entered a clinical trial in January 2004 to test the chemotherapy Campath on MS patients who had experienced a failure of treatment, namely one of the interferon injectibles. Campath is a chemotherapy currently FDA approved for treating leukemia and lymphoma. The name Campath comes from Cambridge Pathology where the treatment was created.

Each person in my trial group had been on one of the interferon treatments (Rebif, Avonex or Betaseron) and each of us had experienced a worsening of symptoms while on one of the disease modifying treatments. Each of us received a week of Campath infusions in January 2004 and we received another round of infusions in January 2005.

I had the month 51 appointment with my neurologist last Thursday. The appointments have month labels that signify how many months since we started this clinical trial. My appointment went well and my neurologist gave me an update on Campath news and trials that are going worldwide.

He told me that almost everyone who has received campath has developed some sort of thyroid disorder, either hyper- or hypo-thryoidism. I've developed Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which causes hypothyroidism. One of my friends in the trial developed Graves disease which is a result of hyperthyroidism. Another side effect has been a problem with blood platelets, ITP. The ITP, of which two participants died, seems to have been somewhat limited and now that we know the symptoms to look for we can catch it early and treat it successfully.

The outcomes have been extraordinary for almost everyone. Before the trial began each participant was tested for disability and assigned a score based on the EDSS scale. My neurologist said that almost everyone who has received Campath has lowered their EDSS score, or disability level. Everyone's symptoms have diminished since the trial began and most importantly, there has been a remarkable reduction in the relapse rate. He jokingly referred to Campath as "Miraculon"... MD humor.

He told me about a trial that tested Campath against one of the interferon injectibles and those results have been incredible. Similar to my trial's results the group receiving Campath experienced an improvement in their disability score and no new disease activity. The group that received the interferon continued to worsen, experiencing relapses and MRI activity. And from personal experience I can tell you that the interferon injections burn like mad and are painful, leaving areas of skin necrosis, so to have the worse outcome is just adding insult to injury.

The Phase III trials have begun the recruitment process, which means thousands of MS patients worldwide will be able to receive Campath. This phase's results should be reviewed by the FDA within a couple of years and hopefully the drug can be fast tracked to become the next MS treatment.

I would strongly recommend this treatment to anyone who is considering it. I'm not so lucky to have MS but I am pretty lucky to have been part of this study and to have received Campath.