[Autotransplantation of hematopoietic progenitor cells in multiple sclerosis]

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease exhibiting great clinical variability. For control of its primary and secondary progressive variants, treatment has met with limited success. In recent years, increasing experience has been gained with the administration of high dose chemotherapy supported by the autologous infusion of hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC), in some instances depleted of T cells. The European and International Registry of Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Autoimmune Diseases include 43 MS patients. BEAM was the most frequently used conditioning therapy. Treatment related mortality was 7%. The actuarial disease free survival and the overall projected survival at 38 months were 85% and 90% respectively. The inclusion of an increasing number of MS patients into these treatment programs and the growing submission of cases to the Registries will provide useful information to determine if the initial enthusiasm generated by this approach for the control of primary and secondary progressive forms of MS is justified.