AAN P02.174 Relationship Between Cladribine-Mediated Changes in Lymphocyte Counts and Disease Activity

Rieckmann et al. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between cladribine tablets-induced changes in lymphocyte counts and therapeutic effect in patients with MS. Lymphocytes are the white blood cells that is thought to cause MS. RESULTS: Changes in the absolute lymphocyte counts from baseline, i.e. before treatment, correlated with MRI activity. CONCLUSIONS: Cladribine-induced changes in lymphocyte counts moderately correlate with MRI and clinical outcomes, and suggest that certain biological markers of cladribine activity are associated with the observed treatment effect.

"These results are from additional analyses done on the CLARITY study and indicate that in the future it may be possible to modify the dose of Cladribine based on its effects on the lymphocyte counts; similar to what happens with other drugs in this category."

The CLARITY Study: Giovannoni et al. N Engl J Med. 2010 Feb 4;362(5):416-26.

COI: I am the principal investigator on the CLARITY study and have received consulting fees for sitting on the study's steering committee.