Dr Tanuja Chitnis Discusses Research Into Treatments for Pediatric MS

While the community has seen the first clinical trials and first FDA-approved therapy for pediatric multiple sclerosis, it remains challenging to treat, said Tanuja Chitnis, MD, associate neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Transcript

What is the challenge with treating pediatric multiple sclerosis and what research would you like to see done?

So, I think one of the major challenges in treating pediatric MS is the fact that it’s a highly inflammatory disease, and we need safe and effective treatments. And we have seen the launch of the first clinical trials, and in fact, the first FDA-approved treatment for pediatric multiple sclerosis, which was Gilenya, or fingolimod. And that was approved this past year.

And that is through the efforts of multiple centers and clinicians worldwide as well as families participating in clinical trials. And this is really a way to get to the answers in terms of the overall efficacy of various treatments, as well as the safety profile. And we need to understand both in order to best advise our families.