Delay from treatment start to full effect of immunotherapies for multiple sclerosis.

Abstract

In multiple sclerosis, treatment start or switch is prompted by evidence of disease activity. Whilst immunomodulatory therapies reduce disease activity, the time required to attain maximal effect is unclear. In this study we aimed to develop a method that allows identification of the time to manifest fully and clinically the effect of multiple sclerosis treatments ('therapeutic lag') on clinical disease activity represented by relapses and progression-of-disability events. Data from two multiple sclerosis registries, MSBase (multinational) and OFSEP (French), were used. Patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, minimum 1-year exposure to treatment, minimum 3-year pretreatment follow-up and yearly review were included in the analysis. For analysis of disability progression, all events in the subsequent 5-year period were included. Density curves, representing incidence of relapses and 6-month confirmed progression events, were separately constructed for each sufficiently represented therapy. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to identify the first local minimum of the first derivative after treatment start; this point represented the point of stabilization of treatment effect, after the maximum treatment effect was observed. The method was developed in a discovery cohort (MSBase), and externally validated in a separate, non-overlapping cohort (OFSEP). A merged MSBase-OFSEP cohort was used for all subsequent analyses. Annualized relapse rates were compared in the time before treatment start and after the stabilization of treatment effect following commencement of each therapy. We identified 11 180 eligible treatment epochs for analysis of relapses and 4088 treatment epochs for disability progression. External validation was performed in four therapies, with no significant difference in the bootstrapped mean differences in therapeutic lag duration between registries. The duration of therapeutic lag for relapses was calculated for 10 therapies and ranged between 12 and 30 weeks. The duration of therapeutic lag for disability progression was calculated for seven therapies and ranged between 30 and 70 weeks. Significant differences in the pre- versus post-treatment annualized relapse rate were present for all therapies apart from intramuscular interferon beta-1a. In conclusion we have developed, and externally validated, a method to objectively quantify the duration of therapeutic lag on relapses and disability progression in different therapies in patients more than 3 years from multiple sclerosis onset. Objectively defined periods of expected therapeutic lag allows insights into the evaluation of treatment response in randomized clinical trials and may guide clinical decision-making in patients who experience early on-treatment disease activity. This method will subsequently be applied in studies that evaluate the effect of patient and disease characteristics on therapeutic lag.

• Authors: Izanne Roos, Emmanuelle Leray, Federico Frascoli, Romain Casey, J William L Brown, Dana Horakova, Eva K Havrdova, Maria Trojano, Francesco Patti, Guillermo Izquierdo, Sara Eichau, Marco Onofrj, Alessandra Lugaresi, Alexandre Prat, Marc Girard, Pierre Grammond, Patrizia Sola, Diana Ferraro, Serkan Ozakbas, Roberto Bergamaschi, Maria José Sá, Elisabetta Cartechini, Cavit Boz, Franco Granella, Raymond Hupperts, Murat Terzi, Jeannette Lechner-Scott, Daniele Spitaleri, Vincent Van Pesch, Aysun Soysal, Javier Olascoaga, Julie Prevost, Eduardo Aguera-Morales, Mark Slee, Tunde Csepany, Recai Turkoglu, Youssef Sidhom, Riadh Gouider, Bart Van Wijmeersch, Pamela McCombe, Richard Macdonell, Alasdair Coles, Charles B Malpas, Helmut Butzkueven, Sandra Vukusic, Tomas Kalincik, MSBase, OFSEP investigators
• Journal: Brain : a journal of neurology (Brain) Vol. 143 Issue 9 Pg. 2742-2756 (09 01 2020) ISSN: 1460-2156 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 32947619 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Multicenter Study, Observational Study, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: © The Author(s) (2020). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected].

Chemical References

• Immunologic Factors
• Immunosuppressive Agents
• Natalizumab

Topics

• Adult
• Cohort Studies
• Disease Progression
• Female
• Follow-Up Studies
• Humans
• Immunologic Factors (administration & dosage)
• Immunosuppressive Agents (administration & dosage)
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Multiple Sclerosis (diagnostic imaging, drug therapy, physiopathology)
• Natalizumab (administration & dosage)
• Prospective Studies
• Registries
• Time Factors
• Treatment Outcome