Treating Progressive Disease

While there are treatments for relapsing-remitting MS, the development of treatments for primary and secondary-progressive MS has been slower. Drug therapies for relapsing forms of MS target inflammation which is a hallmark of this kind of MS, and these drugs are generally less effective in the progressive phase of the disease where inflammation plays a lesser role in the disease process. Medications for progressive disease must target the other underlying disease mechanisms of MS and this is more difficult to do. Several drugs are used in progressive disease, to varying degrees of success, and these include drugs such as cyclophosphamide, cyclosporin, imuran and novantrone.

People with the progressive forms of MS also benefit from managing MS symptoms, rehabilitation and attention to a healthy lifestyle. For more information about progressive MS, please see Living With Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.

Novantrone® (mitoxantrone)

Novantrone belongs to the general group of medicines called antineoplastics. Prior to its approval in the United States for use in MS, it was used only to treat certain forms of cancer. It acts in MS by suppressing the activity of T cells, B cells, and macrophages that are thought to lead the attack on the myelin sheath.

In occasional cases its place in MS therapy is as a second or third line drug for treatment resistant relapsing MS (for progressive MS when accompanied by relapses).