New research presented today at European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis 2024 reveals that initiating monoclonal antibody therapy during childhood, rather than delaying treatment until early adulthood, significantly reduces long-term disability in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The work is published in Sclerosis . The study, which utilized data from the French MS Registry, Italian MS Register, and the global MSBase Registry, analyzed the outcomes of 282 patients with pediatric-onset MS who began experiencing symptoms before the age of 18 years.
Patients were divided into two groups based on when they initiated monoclonal antibody treatment: either between the ages of 12–17 or 20–22 years. To ensure comparability between the groups, the researchers used inverse probability treatment weighting based on propensity scores, which accounted for baseline differences in factors such as sex, age at symptom onset, time from onset to clinically definite MS, and the number of relapses. This approach enabled a clear assessment of how the timing of initiating high-efficacy therapy affects disability outcomes from ages 23 and over.
Using the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) to measure and monitor disability progression in MS, the study showed that patients who began treatment between the ages of 12–17 years (39% of the study group) had a mean absolute increase of only 0.40 points on the EDSS, compared to a 0.95-point increase in those who started t.