High expectation from stem cell therapy for MS patients

Minister of Health and Care Services Bent Høie ( Conservative Party ).Photo: hoyre.no

At least 100 Norwegians who has MS have traveled abroad to receive stem cell treatment, according to MS-organization. Now The minister of health and Human Services Bent Høie promises that more people will get this treatment in Norway.

Bent Høie says to NRK that stem cell therapy will be offered to more patients in an extensive research project at the four health regions.

So far, he believes that there is insufficient information about the effects and side effects of treatment to offer it as standard treatment for MS patients.

He hopes that the study will both help patients to get the offer and could provide information about for which patients this treatment is useful.

According to MS Association around 100 patients have traveled abroad and even paid for a treatment where chemotherapy knocks out the body’s immune system and so the patient’s own stem cells to rebuild it.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system, i.e., brain and spinal cord. Around 11,000 Norwegians have MS.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today