Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated disorder of the central nervous system. DMTs effectively reduce the annual relapse rate-thus reducing disease activity-and, to a lesser extent, some DMTs prevent disease progression in some people with MS. Monitoring the efficacy of DMTs with no evidence disease activity (NEDA) provides an objective perspective for evaluating treatment success.
Objective: Our goal is to detect the prevalence of NEDA-3 in people with MS treated with self-injectable DMTs at two years and 10 years in a retrospective study.
Methods: The treatment continuation rates and NEDA-3 parameters in the 2nd and 10th years were evaluated.
Results: A total of 1032 patients diagnosed with RRMS were included in the study, and 613 patients (59.3%) continued with treatment after 10 years. In the first two years, NEDA-3 was detected in 321 patients (52.4%), and 112 of the 613 patients continued with self-injectable DMTs at the end of 10 years (18.3%). The rate of NEDA-3 in patients starting treatment over the age of 35 was 15.1% compared to that in the patient group starting treatment aged 34 or less at 20.2% (p = .004).
Conclusion: Our study includes the most comprehensive NEDA-3 data from real world evidence and supports the idea that NEDA-3 can be an effective early predictor of progression-free status at treatment follow-up of up to 10 years.
Keywords: NEDA; RRMS; glatiramer acetate; interferon beta; multiple sclerosis; self-injectable DMTs.
© 2022 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.