Beginning treatment early with disease-modifying therapies is the most effective approach to prevent multiple sclerosis (MS) progression in patients, a large-scale study suggests.

Data from the Danish study will be presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), taking place April 21-27 in Los Angeles. The oral presentation is titled “Early versus Later Treatment Start in Multiple Sclerosis – A Register Based Cohort Study.”

The timing of MS treatment has been perceived as a critical step to prevent the disease from worsening, as well as to extend survival.

In the study, a research team evaluated the long-term effects of early treatment with disease-modifying therapies compared with a later treatment start in a real-world setting. They analyzed the clinical data of 3,795 MS patients who were registered in two Danish nationwide population studies.

Participants were divided into two groups according to when they began treatment. Early treatment was defined as beginning within two years after the first MS symptom — this included 2,316 patients. The late treatment group included 1,479 patients who started therapy between two and eight years from disease onset.

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