THE University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) has launched a new trial for multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment.
UHCW is taking part in Octopus – a trial funded by the MS Society – aimed at finding treatments that can slow down, or stop progression of disability in secondary and primary progressive MS.
It is a multi-arm, multi-stage (MAMS) trail which means if a treatment shows potential, it moves on to the second stage which runs for several years and involves more participants and if a treatment doesn’t it can be dropped and new drugs slotted in.
The Octopus trial is testing drugs which have already shown potential to protect nerves and are safe and will work three times faster than traditional studies.
Dr Tarunya Arun, consultant neurologist and principal investigator for the UHCW trial, said: “Treatment for progressive MS is a significant area of unmet need as there are very few licensed treatments available for this form.
“We are hopeful that through our efforts we will find new treatments.”
Tony Sibley, a 64-year-old diagnosed with relapsing MS in 1990, is among those eagerly awaiting the outcomes of the Octopus trial.
Having transitioned to the progressive form of the disease, Tony underscored the significance of clinical trials like Octopus in offering hope and potentially transformative treatments.
Varied demographics are affected by MS and over 130,000 are affected people in the UK alone.
Disability progression in MS comes from the degeneration of nerves in the brain, a process accelerated in conditions like MS, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.
Octopus is being led by researchers from the Queen Square MS Centre and MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London (UCL).
Patients aged between 25 and 70 with a diagnosis of primary or secondary progressive MS can go to ukmsregister.org/octopus to register their interest in taking part in the trial.
