Good News

Cancer treatment is helping people with multiple sclerosis walk again:

Patients with multiple sclerosis are regaining independence with the help of a common cancer treatment.

The treatment is called hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (or HSCT). First there's chemotherapy, which weakens the immune system. Then, the patient's stem cells that are too young to have "flaws that trigger MS" are harvested from the patient's blood and used to rebuild that immune system.

A consultant on the trial compared it to "rebooting" the immune system. MS affects about 2.3 million people worldwide. Researchers describe this latest treatment as a "major achievement."