QL25
Observations Taken from a Convenience Sample in Treating Multiple Sclerosis Patients with Alemtuzumab
Alemtuzumab received FDA approval for treatment of relapsing forms of Multiple Sclerosis in late 2014. Patients who received alemtuzumab at our center after the approval date completed an EDSS, cognitive testing, quality of life measures, and walking evaluations before each dose of alemtuzumab. This retrospective chart review request has been approved by the Carolinas HealthCare System Institutional Review Board.
Objectives:
The purpose of this study is to present clinical data collected on multiple sclerosis patients receiving alemtuzumab at Neurosciences Institute Neurology – Charlotte (NIN-C).
Methods:
A retrospective chart review of NIN-C patients receiving alemtuzumab was undertaken to better understand our patients’ responses to alemtuzumab. Between the dates of February 1, 2015 and December 15, 2017, 53 patients initiated therapy. Thirty-four patients had completed alemtuzumab Courses One and Two by December 15, 2017. Prior to the first course and second course, patients completed assessments including SDMT, T25W, MSQoL, and EDSS. We present the data collected for these patients using these measures and compare subgroups including males and females, those with EDSS above or below 4.0, and those over and under 40 to provide a real world description of Lemtrada use and its effects.
Results:
In patients at our center, benefit was seen in both men and women, in younger and older cohorts, and in patients with EDSS scores less than 4.0 as well as those patients with EDSS scores of 4.0 and greater. Quality of Life Measures improved across patient subtypes, but improvement was more robust in patients initiating Lemtrada with EDSS of 4.0 or greater.
Conclusions: In our experience, Alemtuzumab is a viable option for relapsing multiple sclerosis patient groups that were not represented in the clinical trials. Positive outcomes were seen at our center in EDSS scores, Quality of Life measures and cognitive measures in patients of older ages and more advanced EDSS scores. This study is limited by its small size. Additionally, raters were not blinded.