MS Speaks

I can't determine how "peer-reviewed" the Journal of Neuroimmunology is but this abstract concerns mitoxantrone, and there hasn't been much about it lately.

From PubMed, December 4, 2014:

J Neuroimmunol. 2014 Nov 20. pii: S0165-5728(14)00978-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroim.2014.11.017.

Lack of efficacy of mitoxantrone in primary progressive multiple sclerosis irrespective of pharmacogenetic factors: A multi-center, retrospective analysis

Grey Née Cotte S1, Salmen Née Stroet A1, von Ahsen N2, Starck M3, Winkelmann A4, Zettl UK4, Comabella M5, Montalban X5, Zipp F6, Fleischer V6, Kruse N7, Gold R1, Chan A8.

Author information

1Department of Neurology, St. Josef-Hospital, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany.
2Department of Clinical Chemistry, Medical Faculty, University of Göttingen, Germany.
3Marianne-Strauß-Klinik, Berg, Germany.
4Department of Neurology, University of Rostock, Germany.
5Department of Neurology-Neuroimmunology, Centre d'EsclerosiMúltiple de Catalunya (Cemcat), Institut de RecercaValld'Hebron (VHIR), Hospital UniversitariValld´Hebron, UniversitatAutònoma de Barcelona, Spain.
6University Medicine Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Department of Neurology, Germany.
7Institute of Neuropathology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany.
8Department of Neurology, St. Josef-Hospital, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany. Electronic address: Andrew.Chan@rub.de.

BACKGROUND:

Mitoxantrone is used on an off-label basis in primary progressive MS (PPMS). ABC-transporter-genotypes are associated with therapeutic response in relapsing/secondary progressive MS (RP/SPMS).

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate potential pharmacogenetic response markers for mitoxantrone in PPMS.

METHODS:

41 mitoxantrone-treated PPMS-patients, 155 mitoxantrone-treated RP/SPMS-patients and 43 PPMS-controls were retrospectively assessed for clinical therapy-response and in correlation with four single-nucleotide-polymorphisms in ABCB1- and ABCG2-genes.

RESULTS:

53.7% PPMS-patients were mitoxantrone-responders, in comparison to 78.1% of RP/SPMS-patients (p=0.039). There was no association between genotype and treatment response.

CONCLUSION:

Our data discourages the use of mitoxantrone in PPMS regardless of pharmacogenetic response markers previously described in RP/SPMS.



PMID: 25468777

The abstract  can be seen here.