Early DMT Prescription in Radiologically Isolated Syndrome: Ilena George, MD

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The neurologist from Massachusetts General Hospital gave an overview of her study presented at ACTRIMS.

“We actually had very few clinical conversions to multiple sclerosis—only 16, out of our 89 patients. So that was relatively low compared to what else has been published. But we did find that a surprisingly high number of people, 29%, were treated with disease modifying therapy, which probably did change the likelihood that people were going to convert to clinically definite disease.”

A recent study presented at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2021, February 25-27, 2021, found an increasing trend of early prescription of disease modifying therapy (DMT) in patients with radiologically isolated syndrome (RIS) as compared to previously reported literature.

The study was presented by Ilena George, MD, neurologist, Massachusetts General Hospital. George and colleagues found that the DMT-treated group had a mean age of 37.6 years at diagnosis, younger than the mean age of 44.1 years in the untreated group (P = .03). First-line DMTs included dimethyl fumarate (n = 7), glatiramer acetate (n = 5), teriflunomide (n = 4), ocrelizumab (n = 2) and fingolimod (n = 1). Second-line agents were initiated in 7 patients with RIS, 5 for DMT tolerability and 2 for MRI activity.

NeurologyLive spoke with George to learn more the study and its findings. She discussed how her team was surprised to find that a high number of patients with RIS were treated with DMTs.

For more coverage of ACTRIMS Forum 2021, click here.